The role of stress factors in the postoperative course of patients with rectal cancer

Abstract

The authors studied 82 patients with rectal cancer who underwent radical surgical treatment at the N. N. Petrov Oncological Research Institute of the Ministry of Health of the USSR in 1974–1975. They defined the markedness of patients' psychogenic disturbances in the pre- and postoperative period and measured the level of catecholamines in urine and that of 11-oxycorticosteroids in blood. The findings showed the highest frequency of postoperative complications (68%) in the group of patients who evidenced severe psychic reactions when they were admitted to the clinic. These data correlated with a higher level of catecholamines in the urine and of 11-oxycorticosteroids in the blood before surgery, and with a marked decrease of catecholamine exeretion on the sixth day after the operation. This may indicate sympathetic-adrenal system exhaustion and play a certain part in the development of postoperative complications.