[Responses to surgical stress in blood coagulation and fibrinolysis, platelet counts and thromboxane B2 after esophageal cancer operation].

Studies on responses to surgical stress in blood coagulation and fibrinolysis, platelet counts and thromboxane B2 (TXB2) were carried out with 18 esophageal cancer patients who had undergone radical esophagectomy through right thoracotomy and reconstruction with gastric tube. Plasma levels were measured for the following for coagulation assessment: thrombin.antithrombin III complex (TAT), soluble fibrin monomer complex(SFMC), fibrinogen, antithrombin III, protein C and thrombomodulin. Selected fibrinolytic markers are: tissue plasminogen activator.plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 complex (tPA.PAI1C), plasminogen, alpha 2 plasmin inhibitor, plasmin. alpha 2 plasmin inhibitor complex(PIC), FDP and D-dimer. Peripheral venous blood samples were taken from the patients before the operation, immediately after the operation and on each of the first, second, third, seventh and fourteenth day after the operation. It was observed that TAT, SFMC, tPA.PAI-1C and TXB2 were remarkably altered immediately after the operation. This indicates that the major surgical stress significantly activated coagulation, fibrinolysis and platelets. Higher plasma levels of TAT compared to the pre-operation level was recorded for two weeks after the operation. Furthermore, in four cases, SFMC became positive during three to seven days after operation. These facts indicate that the activation of coagulation persisted during the days after operation. PIC began to increase from the 2nd to 3rd days after operation, reaching the maximum on the 7th day. Biphasic changes which peaked twice on the 1st and 7th days after operation were shown in plasma levels of FDP and D-dimer. These results indicate that the activation of fibrinolysis also persisted during the days after operation. The activation of coagulation and fibrinolysis may persist at least for two weeks after major surgical operation. Careful observation for the states of these systems was thought to be needed during the post-operative days, and the molecular markers could be useful to assess subclinical changes of these systems.