Which idea is better with regard to immune response? Opioid anesthesia or opioid free anesthesia

• Main Authors: Lisowska B, Jakubiak J, Siewruk K, Sady M, Kosson D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2020-11-01
• Series: Journal of Inflammation Research
• Subjects: opioids; opioid-free anesthesia; immune response; surgical stress
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/which-idea-is-better-with-regard-to-immune-response-opioid-anesthesia--peer-reviewed-article-JIR

Barbara Lisowska,1 Jakub Jakubiak,2 Katarzyna Siewruk,3 Maria Sady,3 Dariusz Kosson4 1Department Anesthesiology and Intensive Medical Care, National Geriatrics, Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Institute, Warsaw 02-637, Poland; 2Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, John Paul II Western Hospital, Grodzisk Mazowiecki 05-825, Poland; 3Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Large Animal Diseases with Clinic, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw 02-797, Poland; 4Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Division of Teaching, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw 02-005, PolandCorrespondence: Barbara Lisowska Tel [phone]Fax [phone]Email [e-mail]: The stress of surgery is characterized by an inflammatory response with immune suppression resulting from many factors, including the type of surgery and the kind of anesthesia, linked with the drugs that are used and the underlying disease of the patient. The trauma of surgery triggers a cascade of reactions involving the immune response and nociception. As strong analgesics, opioids provide the analgesic component of general anesthesia with bi-directional effect on the immune system. Opioids influence almost all aspects of the immune response in regards to leukocytes, macrophages, mast cells, lymphocytes, and NK cells. The suppressive effect of opioids on the immune system is limiting their use, especially in patients with impaired immune response, so the possibility of using multimodal anesthesia without opioids, known as opioid-free anesthesia (OFA), is gaining more and more sympathizers. The idea of OFA is to eliminate opioid analgesia in the treatment of acute pain and to replace it with drugs from other groups that are assumed to have a comparable analgesic effect without affecting the immune system. Here, we present a review on the impact of anesthesia, with and without the use of opioids, on the immune response to surgical stress.Keywords: opioids, opioid-free anesthesia, immune response, surgical stress