Effects of Anesthetic Technique on Immune and Inflammatory Systems Following Radical Prostatectomy

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2012-03-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Male

Summary

Several recently published retrospective studies show that regional anaesthesia (RA) can reduce cancer-related mortality following surgical treatment of colorectal, breast and prostate cancers and malignant melanoma. If these results are true, then the choice of perioperative pain management is as beneficial, or even better, than the current oncological therapies. This theory needs to be investigated in a prospective, randomized and controlled trail. We shall perform a prospective, randomized study comparing the effects of Thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) or patient controlled analgesia (PCA) on postoperative immunological and inflammatory markers in order to understand whether the protective effects, if any, of regional analgesia are due to changes in these markers or whether the underlying mechanisms is not mediated via this stress signalling pathway.

• Phase: Phase 3
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Örebro University, Sweden
• Treatments: Bupivacaine; Morphine; Ropivacaine; Sufentanil

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• ASA physical status 1-2

• Radical retropubic prostatectomy

Exclusion Criteria:

• Chronic use of opiates

• Contraindication to epidural analgesia

• Allergy to component drugs

• Chronic inflammatory diseases

• Use of steroids perioperatively