Prolactin response to the severity of surgical insult

Prolactin levels are elevated significantly during the recovery process fro m surgical insult, implying a role for prolactin in the neuroendocrine immu ne network. This study examined the importance of severity of surgical insu lt to the prolactin response. Two groups of surgical patients were chosen c onsecutively and studied prospectively. Seven patients scheduled For "clean " elective surgery, ie, herniorrhaphy and laparoscopic cholecystectomy, wer e compared with seven patients scheduled for prolonged abdominal exploratio n. Blood was drawn For prolactin and cortisol at 8:00 AM on the day of surg ery and on postoperative days one, three, and Five. Using a two-railed test , preoperative prolactin levels and levels on postoperative days three and five were significantly different in the prolonged surgery group (.012 and .002, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in preoperative and postoperative prolactin levels in the clean surgery group . Cortisol levels were not significantly elevated in either group. These re sults indicate that the prolactin response to surgery is related to the sev erity of the surgical insult.