Effects of tramadol on immune function in gastrointestinal cancer patients

Objective To observe the effects of tramadol on T-lymphocyte subsets,activated T cells and natural killer(NK)cells in patients undergoing gastrointestinal cancer surgeries.Methods Thirty patients undergoing selective gastric cancer surgeries were randomly divided into 2 groups.Experimental group(E)was given tramadol 1 mg/kg intramuscularly before anesthesia and control group(C)was not.CD3+,CD3+CD4+,CD3+CD8+,CD3-CD16+CD56+(NK)cells and CD3+HLA-DR+(activated T cell)were measured by flow cytometery before anesthesia,at 1 h after incision,and at the end of operation.Results CD3+,CD3+CD4+,CD3+CD4+/CD3+ CD8+,CD3+CD16+CD56+ and CD3+HLA-DR+ cells in two groups were significantly decreased at one hour after incision compared with those before(P0.05),which were lower in group C than those in group E(P0.05)and recovered to the baseline in group E but not in group C at the end of surgery.Conclusion Tamadol can improve the cellular immune function by ameliorating the decrese of T-lymphocytes subsets and NK cells in patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgeries.