Comparison of Cardioprotective Effects of Propofol versus Sevoflurane in Pediatric Living Donor Liver Transplantation.

BACKGROUND Our study compared the myocardiac protective effect of propofol vs. sevoflurane in pediatric patients receiving living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS We randomly and equally divided 120 children who underwent LDLT into a sevoflurane group and a propofol group. Preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative data were collected and compared between the 2 groups. The concentrations of cTnI, CK-MB, IL-6, TNF-alpha, and HMGB1 at 5 min after induction (T0), 30 min in the anhepatic period (T1), and 3 h after reperfusion (T2), and at the end of surgery (T3) were measured. RESULTS There was no statistically significant difference in the characteristics of children in the 2 groups. Compared with T0, the levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha at T1, T2, and T3 were higher, while the HMGB1 at T2 and T3 were higher (P<0.05). A similar trend for IL-6, TNF-alpha, and HMGB1 at different time points in the 2 groups was observed. Compared with T0, the cTnI and CK-MB at T2 and T3 were significantly higher (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference at different time points in the 2 groups. For the adverse events, there was no significant difference between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that the cardioprotective effect in pediatric patients undergoing living donor liver transplantation is similar with propofol and sevoflurane anesthesia.