Serum interleukin-6 response after spinal surgery: estimation of surgical magnitude.
BACKGROUND
Serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been used for quantitative estimation of the surgical magnitude of major cardiac and thoracoabdominal surgery, but there have been few studies assessing IL-6 as a marker of surgical magnitude of spinal surgery.


METHODS
We investigated the changes in IL-6 response in comparison to other parameters of surgical magnitude and spinal surgery procedures. The study included 40 patients electively undergoing spinal surgery. The patients were divided into four groups: lumbar laminectomy with posterolateral fusion (PLF), lumbar laminotomy, lumbar open discectomy, and cervical laminoplasty. Serum IL-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), creatine kinase (CK), and the white blood cell (WBC) count were determined in venous blood before surgery, at the end of surgery, and 6 h and the first, third, and seventh days after surgery.


RESULTS
Serum IL-6 peaked on the first day and returned to a normal value by the seventh day. The peak IL-6 concentrations on the first day after surgery significantly correlated with CRP, CK, duration of surgery, and estimated blood loss. Regarding lumbar surgeries, the peak IL-6 for laminectomy/PLF was significantly higher than that for laminotomy/open discectomy or for cervical laminoplasty.


CONCLUSIONS
Serum IL-6 on the first day varied depending on the surgical procedure used. Therefore, it might be a quantitative marker of surgical magnitude following spinal surgery.
Demura
Satoru
S
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa, 920-8641, Japan.
Takahashi
Keisuke
K
Kawahara
Norio
N
Watanabe
Yasuyuki
Y
Tomita
Katsuro
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D003402:Creatine Kinase / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D015415:Biomarkers; D015850:Interleukin-6; D002097:C-Reactive Protein; D003402:Creatine Kinase