HEPATOTOXICITY AFTER GENERAL ANAESTHESIA
Abstract
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ANAESTHESIA Non-halothane Downloaded from bja.oxfordjournals.org at Infovell on November 18, 2010 Before op. After op. Before op. "After op. FIG. 1. Top graphs: Serum F protein concentration (log scale) before and after operation (day 6) in patients receiving inhalation anaesthetic agents. Patients with preoperative liver disease (lower graphs) were suffering from drug induced liver disease (two), alcohol abuse (one), carcinoma (one) or had no known cause of liver damage (two). Broken lines indicate upper limit of normal for serum F protein concentration. ⢠= Halothane; A = isoflurane; ⢠= enflurane. + ⢠= Two inhalation anaesthetics used during the same operation. protein concentration (measured 24 h after surgery) did not change significantly (paired t test) from preoperative values. The serum F protein concentration is a very sensitive test of liver damage; it shows a close correlation with the histological assessment of hepatocellular damage, and the concentration is increased in patients such as the elderly who have minimal hepatic disease (unpublished data). Our failure to confirm the occurrence of early postanaesthetic liver damage may result from the small number of patients studied and the relatively insensitive statistical techniques used. However, it may indicate that postoperative