Significance of systemic inflammatory response syndrome after surgical treatment for thoracic esophageal cancer

Abstract

We studied the significance of Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) state after surgical treatment of thoracic esophageal cancer. From January 1991 to December 1995, 35 patients received thoracic esophageal cancer surgery. Thirty three patients (94.3%) were in the SIRS state after surgery and mean duration of SIRS was 3.4 days. Duration of SIRS was statistically longer in patients with pulmonary complications. Patients with hyperbilirubinemia (> or = 3.0 mg/dl) after surgery had longer duration of SIRS. Induction therapy did not affect the duration of SIRS. Collectively, duration of SIRS is an indication of complications, especially of pulmonary complications, after surgical treatment of thoracic esophageal cancer, and blood bililubin score after surgery correlates to duration of SIRS. These suggest that we must pay special attention to patients with long duration of SIRS or hyperbilirubinemia after thoracic esophageal surgery.