J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 78(3): 233-243, 1977
Original article
PREOPERATIVE AND POSTOPERATIVE CHANGES OF HORMONAL FUNCTION IN THE AGED
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First Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kobe University (Director : prof. Takao Mitsuno) Shuichi Okumura |
In one of the research on the pre and postoperative care of the aged, the present study was undertaken to reveal the pituitary-thyroid and pituitary-adrenocortical functions of the aged in relation to the surgical stress.
Comparing with the youth, the aged showed no significant difference in the pituitary-thyroid function, which did not change during the surgical stress.
However, the maximal response of the TSH to the TRH was lower and half time of the T4 decay of the blood was longer in the aged than those in the youth.
In the pituitary-adrenocortical function, the response of the aged was quite same to that of the youth either preoperatively or postoperatively.
However, the secreted cortisol of the blood by the surgical stress remained longer in the aged than in the youth.
Since the secretion of ACTH and cortisol was revealed not to be damaged by the aging. The prolonged decay of the blood cortisol suggested the decreased degradation of the cortisol of the aged.
On the other hand, the enzymatic induction of the liver by cortisol was noticed to be depressed in the aged.
Therefore, the decreased degradation of cortisol might cover the depressed enzymatic induction by cortisol in the tissues of the aged as homeostasis.
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