Effects of inhalation anesthetics on the profile of urinary neopterin as an immune marker in patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy

It has been claimed that inhalational anesthetics affect many phases of immune response. Although, there are a lot of studies on the effects of widely used anaesthetic agents and methods on the immune system, there are only a few studies to show the effects by evaluation of neopterin concentrations as an important marker of cellular immunity. This study was done to evaluate possible effects of inhalation anesthetics, such as desflurane, isoflurane, and sevoflurane on the immune system by measuring urinary neopterin concentrations in patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The study is randomized, prospective and double blind. Urinary neopterin was measured in patients submitted to general anesthesia with either desflurane (n = 20) or isoflurane (n = 11), or sevoflurane ( n = 13) in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Urine samples were collected preoperatively, at 2(nd) and 24(th) hours post-operatively and the neopterin per creatinine concentrations were measured by using high-performance liquid chromatography. The preoperative neopterin levels were similar across the study groups. Variance analysis of repeated measures showed an effect of time (p < 0.05): Neopterin concentrations increased over time, but the effect of different anesthetics on neopterin was similar. The mean increases in neopterin concentrations were similar among all the applied anesthetics. In conclusion, this report shows changes of immune response by investigation of neopterin in urine samples during 24 hours in patients exposed to three different inhalational anesthetic agents sevoflurane, desflurane and isoflurane in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.