Anaesthesia Fundamentals | Physiology | Hormonal, Metabolic and Inflammatory Responses to Surgery

Hormonal, Metabolic and Inflammatory Responses to Surgery
Session Overview
Description
This session covers the hormonal, metabolic and inflammatory responses to surgery.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Define the metabolic stress response
• Explain the neuroendocrine response to surgery
• Explain the inflammatory response to surgery
• Give examples of anaesthetic techniques which may modify the perioperative stress response

The stress response refers to the series of hormonal, inflammatory, metabolic and psychological changes, which occur in response to trauma or surgery. Surgery serves as a useful model of the stress response because the changes that occur can be observed from a well-defined starting point, but similar features occur in trauma, burns, severe infection and strenuous exercise.