Effects of intravenous anesthesia and inhalation anesthesia on postoperative inflammatory markers in patients with esophageal cancer: a retrospective study.

Background: Inflammatory markers have been confirmed to be associated with the prognosis of cancer patients. In this study, we compared the impacts of intravenous anesthesia and inhalation anesthesia on the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) after esophageal cancer surgery.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of patients who underwent esophagectomy from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016. Patients respectively received total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) or inhalational anesthesia (INHA). Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was employed to minimize differences. The Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal Wallis test was utilized to compare the effect of the two groups on postoperative NLR, PLR and SII.

Results: A total of 519 patients who had undergone esophageal cancer resection were recruited in this study, among whom 339 patients were eligible (TIVA group, n = 201, INHA group, n = 138). After IPTW, there was no statistically significant difference in NLR, PLR, and SII on the first postoperative day(P = 0.1951), (P = 0.5611), (P = 0.9684) and on the third postoperative day(P = 0.5961), (P = 0.1804), (P = 0.9653) between the two groups.

Conclusions: In conclusion, there was no significant difference in NLR, PLR and SII between intravenous anesthesia or inhalational anesthesia. TIVA is not superior to INHA in reducing the perioperative inflammatory response of esophageal cancer.

Synopsis: Inflammatory markers play an important role in the recurrence, metastasis and survival of tumor patients after surgery. In this study, we will compare the effects of different anesthesia methods on inflammatory markers.