[Differences in IgM increase following operations in general anesthesia and paraspinal regional anesthesia].

The serum immunoglobin levels of 74 patients with a prosthetic hip operation were studied. 36 patients received general anaesthesia with thiopental sodium, succinylcholine, alcuronium and halothane, whereas 38 patients were given a catheter epidural anaesthesia (CEA) with bupivacaine. Both collectives were subdivided into four groups, in whom the loss of blood was substituted by either human albumin 5%, dextrane, gelatine, or hydroxyethyl starch. Patients with a general anaesthesia had a high increase in serum IgM on the 7th day after operation, whereas there was no increase in the patients who had received CEA. In all the other parameters there was no difference between the various anaesthetics; likewise, the individual volume substitution management procedures did not produce differences in these parameters. IgM elevation is interpreted as a reaction to an affection of the tracheo-bronchial system; this reaction did not occur with the CEA group. The cause of the reaction is the interaction of immunomodulating drugs, and changes in ventilation that lead to an activation of the immune system.