The immunosuppressive effects of volatile versus intravenous anesthesia combined with epidural analgesia on kidney cancer: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Background: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the use of inhalational anesthesia leads to higher suppression of the cell-mediated immunity compared to total intravenous anesthesia in patients undergoing kidney cancer surgery under combined low thoracic epidural analgesia and general anesthesia.

Methods: Patients were randomly allocated to either propofol-based (intravenous anesthetic) or sevoflurane-based (volatile anesthetic) anesthesia group with 10 patients in each group, along with epidural analgesia in both groups. Amounts of natural killer (NK) cells, total T lymphocytes, and T lymphocyte subpopulations in the blood samples collected from the patients before surgery, at the end of the surgery and postoperative days 1, 3 and 7 were determined by flow cytometric analysis.

Development and Validation of a New Cardio-Specific Resting Energy Expenditure Equation for Adults.

Background: This study tested the accuracy of resting energy expenditure (REE) equations among patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass and developed/validated a more accurate cardio-specific equation (CSE).

Materials And Methods: Prospective observational cohort of 240 adults (derivation data set, 170 patients; validation data set, 70 patients). REEs were calculated with 6 equations-Penn State 2003a, Penn State 2003b, Ireton-Jones, Swinamer, Faisy, and American College of Chest Physicians-and results were compared with indirect calorimetry (IC).