Granulocyte microbicidal function in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery under balanced anaesthesia.

Granulocyte microbicidal functions were studied in 11 major abdominal surgery patients with the luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence method. The responses of granulocytes in phagocytosis of zymosan, S. aureus and E. coli and responses to N-formylmethionyl-leucylphenylalanine (FMLP) were unaffected by surgery. The percentage of high-peroxidase-activity cells among neutrophils was increased on postoperative days 1 (P less than 0.01) and 3-4 (P less than 0.05). We propose that microbicidal-related oxidative phagocytic functions of granulocytes are well maintained after major abdominal surgery under balanced anaesthesia.