Efficacy of immunomodulating treatment in patients with different degrees of immunosuppression

: Immunodepression is a common condition in patients undergoing elective operations and it constitutes a high risk for the onset of postoperative infective complications. The use of immunomodulatory drugs has proved useful in the prophylaxis of these complications, although the precise indications for each drug have not yet been clearly codified. The present study aimed to assess the effects of thymostimulin in patients with different degrees of immunodepression, by evaluating both the incidence of postoperative infections and the changes induced in various immunological parameters. The results obtained indicated that those subjects with the highest degree of immunodepression (hypo-anergic) benefited most from drug therapy in comparison to those with a lesser degree of immunodepression (relatively hypo-ergic). The advantages were evident in hypo-anergic subjects both with regard to the frequency of early postoperative infections, and with regard to immunological parameters. On the other hand, in relatively hypo-ergic subjects, benefits were limited to the improvement of some immunological parameters. In our opinion, the use of thymostimulin is of particular use only in those subjects with marked immunodepression since the incidence of post-operative sepsis is highest in this group.