Role of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Postoperative Complications and Quality of Life After Laryngeal Cancer Surgery

Abstract

(1) Background: Laryngeal surgery due to carcinoma leads to significant tissue disruption, cellular injury, and inflammation. This leads to increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), causing oxidative damage that can influence quality of life (QOL) and recovery and complicate the postoperative course. The aim of this study was to compare how postoperative quality of life and surgical complication occurrence interacted with the biomarker levels of oxidative stress (malondialdehyde, MDA; superoxide dismutase, SOD; glutathione peroxidase 1, GPX1; and catalase, CAT) and inflammation (interleukin 1, IL-1; interleukin 6, IL-6; C-reactive protein, CRP) in patients treated with conservative and radical laryngeal surgery. (2) Methods: The study included 56 patients who underwent surgical treatment for laryngeal cancer. Blood samples were collected to analyze oxidative stress and inflammation parameters before surgery and on the first and seventh days postoperatively. Serum concentrations of MDA, SOD, GPX, CAT, IL-1, IL-6, and CRP were measured using coated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. EORTC QLQ-H&H43 questionnaire was used to measure the QOL of patients. (3) Results and Conclusions: T stage, pain intensity, and the extent of the surgical procedure were established as significant predictive factors for QOL in multivariate analysis. There was a significant positive correlation between surgical complication occurrence and preoperative values of GPX and MDA, but significant predictors of surgical complication occurrence on the 7th postoperative day were SOD and MDA values (p < 0.05).

Keywords

• laryngeal cancer
• oxidative stress
• quality of life
• postoperative complications