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SUMMARY
We compared the onset of predictors for postoperative complications (lactate, total T3 (tT3), total T4 (tT4) and cortisone) retrospectively with the onset of altered growth hormone (GH) concentration in a patient who had had a lethal postoperative outcome and in 13 patients who were without postoperative complications for a period of 24 hours postoperatively.
Compared with the values of the patients without postoperative complications, GH values were elevated (68-fold) 1 h after surgery to 103 ng/ml and lactate was increased (12-fold) to 12.7 mmol/l at 6 h postoperatively in the patient with the lethal outcome. The other parameters measured (tT3, tT4 and cortisone) showed no rapid alteration during the first hours postoperatively.
This case report suggests that the rapid postoperative onset of raised GH concentration in plasma may be an earlier marker for postoperative complications than the 'established' predictors.
Notes
The results of this study were presented at the Fourth Deutscher Interdisziplinärer Kongress für Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin, November, 1997, and published as an abstract in Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin, 34 (Suppl. 1), p. 71, 1997