[Humoral and cellular immunodepression following surgery and postoperative infection]

The correlation between humoral and cellular immunodepression and postoperative infection was studied. Our previous study showed that the incidence of postoperative infection was significantly higher in the patients with malignant disease than in those with benign disease. In order to assess the difference, serial determinations of humoral immuno-factors and cellular immuno-functions were performed on 60 patients with benign disease (group A) and 20 patients with malignant disease (group B) before and following surgery. In the group B, the reductions of complement levels, haptoglobulin and transferrin were observed on the 1st and 3rd postoperative days, but in group A, the reductions of these parameters were not so low as those in group B and these parameters recovered progressively. In both groups, patients who had serious reductions of humoral immuno-factors developed postoperative infection. There was no close correlation between the depression of cellular immuno-functions and postoperative infection. Our data suggest that the higher incidence of postoperative infection in group B is responsible for the depression of humoral immuno-factors in the early period of postoperative day.