Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the cytokine patterns of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms and the effects of preoperative steroid administration on surgical stress.
Methods: From January 1996 to August 1996, 20 consecutive patients underwent an elective reconstruction of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms. The patients were randomly divided into two groups consisting of a control group (n=10) and a steroid group (n=10), in whom 1 g of methylprednisolone was intravenously administered two hours before the operation.
Measures: Interleukin-6 was serially measured and the perioperative parameters including C-reactive protein were compared between both the control and the steroid groups.
Results: The interleukin-6 values in the steroid group immediately after declamping, as well as at one and three postoperative days were significantly lower than those in the control group. C-reactive protein values at one postoperative day in the steroid group were also significantly lower than those in the control group. In one patient with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, the interleukin-6 values were higher than those in the patients undergoing elective surgery throughout the study.
Conclusions: These results thus suggest that preoperative steroid administration using methylprednisolone in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms appears to reduce surgical stress by decreasing cytokine release.