Protective effect of methylprednisolone combined with ulinastatin pretreatment on inflammatory lung injury induced by anesthesia for esophageal cancer

Objective:To investigate the protective effect of methylprednisolone combined with ulinastatin pretreatment on inflammatory lung injury induced by single-lung ventilation.Methods: A total of 120 patients with radical resection of cancer surgery admitted to our hospital from January 2016 to December 2017 were randomly divided into control group, methylprednisolone group, ulinastatin group, and methylprednisolone combined with ulinastatin pretreatment group. Before single lung ventilation (T0), 30 min after ventilation (T1), and 60 min (T2) after the end of ventilation, enzyme-linked immunosorbent kit method was used to detect the levels of inflammatory factors TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-10. The mean airway pressure (Pmean) at each monitoring point and the oxygenation indexes (PaO2/FiO2) before and after surgery were detected. And also, the extraction time, drainage volume and sputum volume of the drainage tube after surgery were measured.Results:Compared with the control group, the other three groups can reduce the levels of TNF-α and IL-8 in the blood of patients with esophageal cancer, improve IL-10 and increase the oxygenation index (P<0.05). However, methylprednisolone combined with ulinastatin pretreatment group was significantly better than methylprednisolone group and ulinastatin group in reducing serum inflammatory factor levels and increasing oxygenation index. In addition, the drainage tube extraction time, drainage volume and sputum volume of the patients treated with methylprednisolone combined with ulinastatin were also significantly lower than those of the control group, the methylprednisolone group and the ulinastatin group.Conclusions: Methylprednisolone combined with ulinastatin has a synergistic protective effect on inflammatory lung injury caused by radical resection of esophageal cancer patients, which is worthy of first-line clinical recommendation.