Abstract
Zinc is an essential trace element which is the cofactor of at least 200 different enzymes. These enzymes play an important role in biochemical processes such as DNA and RNA replication, cell division and protein synthesis. These actions explain the impact of zinc on wound healing and immunity, two important factors that influence the clinical outcome of surgical patients. Early papers as well as more recent ones confirm the effectiveness of zinc supplementation in correcting serum zinc drop and in facilitating wound healing. Zinc status should therefore be corrected before the intervention in the case of marginal deficiency. in the case of major surgev, the stress caused by the intervention provokes a serum zinc drop that can reach 47% of the pre-operative value; this drop exclusively affects the evailable part of serum zinc, thus resulting in an actual decrease of 60% of this index, and can last eight days. the mechanism of this drop, rather than increased output, is explained by retention of zinc by the liver which synthesizes more metallothioneins as a response to the secretion of interleukin I. At least in the case of major surgical interventions, the evidence pleads in favour of daily zinc supplementation started before the intervention in order to restore zinc supplies to peripheral tissues which need more zinc in the days following surgery.