Effects of surgical stress and nitrous oxide anaesthesia on peri-operative plasma levels of total homocysteineA randomised, controlled study in general surgery
✍ Scribed by D. Foschi; A. Rizzi; M. L. Zighetti; M. Bissi; F. Corsi; E. Trabucchi; M. Mezzetti; M. Cattaneo
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 217 KB
- Volume
- 56
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0003-2409
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✦ Synopsis
Previous studies of patients have shown that anaesthesia with nitrous oxide (N~2~O) increases the plasma levels of total homocysteine. In a randomised, controlled trial we measured the plasma total homocysteine levels in patients undergoing general surgery before and after anaesthesia with and without N~2~O. Plasma total homocysteine levels were measured before anaesthesia and 1, 3–5 and 24 h after incision in 24 patients randomly allocated to anaesthesia with N~2~O (n = 12) and without N~2~O (n = 12). Total homocysteine levels significantly decreased from 10.4 ± 2.7 to 8.2 ± 2.9 µmol.l^−1^ in the non‐N~2~O group 24 h after incision (p < 0.02), while they tended to increase slightly in the N~2~O group from 10.5 ± 4.5 to 10.9 ± 4.3 µmol.l^−1^ (p > 0.05). Our randomised controlled study indicates that total homocysteine decreases after general surgery in patients in whom anaesthesia is maintained without N~2~O, but not in patients in whom anaesthesia is maintained with N~2~O.