Objective: to evaluate and compare the early postoperative period systemic inflammatory response between elderly and non-elderly patients submitted to laparoscopic cholecystectomy, mainly performing a quantitative analysis of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a marker of inflammatory activity systemic.
Methods: we compared a series of cases over a period of six months at the Gaffrée and Guinle University Hospital of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, involving 60 patients submitted to elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy. We used non-probabilistic sampling for convenience, selecting, from the inclusion criteria, the first 30 patients aged 18-60 years, who comprised group I, and 30 patients with age equal to or greater than 60 years, who formed group II.