Abstract
The aim of our study is to examine the relationship between surgical stress and serum cortisol levels in patients undergoing surgeries and to find out any difference in hormonal response between either type of surgical procedures; elective and emergency. A total number of 90 male subjects of ages between 20-50 years have participated in our study. The total 90 subjects were divided into three groups (I,II,III) each group consisting of 30 subjects and the groups B,C were again divided to three subgroups (A,B,C). Subgroups A (preoperative blood samples were collected 1- hour before surgery), B (postoperative blood samples were collected 1-hour after the end of the surgery) and C (postoperative blood samples were collected 24-hours after surgery). Serum cortisol level was estimated by using the invitro-immunolytic test. Statistical analysis were done by paired, unpaired‘t’ test and regression analysis methods. The preoperative mean serum cortisol concentration in elective surgical cases was almost parallel to that of healthy control. Conversely, in the emergency surgeries, a significantly increased mean cortisol level were observed (I vs IIIA and IIA vs IIIA; P < 0.05). The serum cortisol concentrations were increased both in elective and emergency surgeries but the extent of increase was more noticeable in emergency surgeries (IIB vs IIIB; P < 0.05). Consequently, our study concludes that there is a clear relationship between the surgical stress and the serum cortisol levels in patients undergoing either surgerical procedures (elective or emergency) and there was a high increase observed in emergency type of surgery.
