Comparison of Outcomes After Breast Cancer Surgery Between Inhalational and Propofol-Based Intravenous Anaesthesia: A...

General anaesthesia is the commonly provided for breast cancer surgery, but the effects of inhalational anaesthesia and propofol-based intravenous anaesthesia on short- and long-term outcomes after breast cancer surgery are not clear. In this study, we conduct a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to explore the superior anaesthetic for breast cancer surgery patients.

We searched the Embase, Medline, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, and Wanfang databases (up to January, 2021) for RCTs in which inhalational anaesthesia and propofol-based intravenous anaesthesia were compared and short- and long-term outcomes were assessed in breast cancer surgical patients. The meta-analysis was performed by Stata 12.0.

Twenty RCTs with a total of 2201 patients were included. Compared with inhalational anaesthesia, propofol-based intravenous anaesthesia was associated with more postoperative rescue analgesia (I =0%, RR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.07-1.30, P=0.001) but a lower incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) (I =25.5%, RR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.62-0.81, P<0.001) and postoperative rescue antiemetics (I =0%, RR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.58-0.82, P<0.001). Propofol-based intravenous anaesthesia preserved nature killer cell cytotoxicity (I =86.2%, SMD: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.13-1.39, P=0.018), decreased IL-6 level (I =98.0%, SMD: -3.09, 95% CI: -5.70- -0.48, P=0.021) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (I =0%, SMD: -0.28, 95% CI: -0.53- -0.03, P=0.030), and increased 2-year recurrence-free survival rate (I =0%, RR: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.00-1.20, P=0.043) but did not affect recurrence or the overall survival rate (P>0.05).

Propofol-based intravenous anaesthesia increases postoperative rescue analgesia but reduces PONV compared with inhalational anaesthesia in breast cancer surgery. The benefit of propofol over inhalational anaesthetics in the preservation of anti-cancer immunity is obvious, but it is difficult to conclude that propofol can exert long-term benefits due to the small sample size.