Lidocaine Infusion With Enhanced Recovery Program for Pancreatic Cancer Surgery: Effect on Pain and Patient Immunity

The whole world now is directed to implement strategies that enhance the patient's quality of life and prevent tumor relapse , so the Enhanced recovery after pancreatic surgery (ERAPS) program was found to improve the quality of life as it is an evidence-based protocol designed to standardize and optimize perioperative medical care in order to reduce surgical trauma, perioperative physiological stress, organ dysfunction, reduction of clinical complications, length of hospital stay and the health costs together with increase of patient satisfaction.

ERAPS was applied for pancreatic surgery in 2012, since that time 27 developed ERAPS items were evaluated, 5 of them got the highest level of evidence those include (avoiding hypothermia, use of wound catheters for continuous analgesia, antimicrobial, thromboprophylaxis protocols and preoperative nutritional interventions for patients with severe weight loss (15%). ERAS society encourages further researches to improve compliance and outcome and to confirm the benefit of current updated recommendations.

Many drugs had been used in the anaesthetic management of major abdominal surgeries and of which is lidocaine; it is an amide local anaesthetic commonly used for regional and neuraxial blocks. Recently its use as intravenous perioperative infusion for abdominal cancer surgeries is encouraging, as it significantly reduces postoperative pain, opioid consumption and nausea and vomiting. it also promotes gastrointestinal function recovery, and shortens the postoperative hospital stay.

In addition, lidocaine in particular can act directly and indirectly on pancreatic cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment. At the tumor level, lidocaine can induce apoptosis in cancer cells by inhibiting Src phosphorylation and reducing the expression of adhesion molecules. In the tumor microenvironment, lidocaine can enhance the activity of immune cells such as natural killer cells, which are responsible for directly attacking cancer cells. Furthermore the impact of lidocaine on post-operative opioid consumption could be another factor that reduces the opioid associated cancer progression.

Natural killer (NK) cells are cluster of differentiation 3 (CD3-) -cluster of differentiation 56 (CD56+) lymphocytes playing a pivotal role in the innate immune response against cancer. Their main purpose is identification and eradication of virus infected cells and metastatic cells. Diminished activity of NK cells is a predisposing factor for cancer recurrence. Preservation of innate immune function and the direct anti-inflammatory effects may be the cause of the protective effects of local anaesthetics and regional techniques.