Neutrophil degranulation and increased pulmonary capillary permeability following oesophagectomy: a model of early lung injury in man.

In nine subjects undergoing oesophagectomy a transient but significant increase in pulmonary vascular permeability to transferrin was detected in both lungs 8 h after surgery. It coincided with a significant increase in plasma lactoferrin, evidence of intravascular and intra-alveolar neutrophil elastase release and with arterial hypoxaemia. The postoperative state in these patients had intravascular and pulmonary features often associated with the adult respiratory distress syndrome, and might be a useful model for the study of the early inflammatory events underlying lung injury in man.