[Local immunity following treatment with S-carboxymethylcysteine-lysine in tracheotomy patients].

Pathological modification in secretory IgA values as well as in circadian rhythms were found in tracheotomized patients in both nasal and tracheo-bronchial secretions. The protective role of the mucosal immune system in addition to the frequency of severe infectious respiratory diseases in laryngectomized patients justifies the efforts of clinicians to prevent and treat such modifications. Mucoregulatory drugs have a peculiar role in these therapeutical attempts. Forty tracheotomized subjects with neoplastic disease were studied. Twenty received SCMC-Lys as a mucoregulatory drug. IgA 7S, 11S and albumin values in nasal and tracheo-bronchial secretions, were evaluated at surgery, 15 and then 40 days later. In accordance with clinical data, an improvement in local antibody production, damaged by tracheostomy, was found in the treated group. The influence of SCMS-Lys on SIgA production, whose evaluation was made by means of an original, highly selective and sensitive Immuno-IsoElectroFocusing procedure, seems to encourage the use of mucoregulatory drugs in laryngectomized patients.