Cancer Immunotherapies: What the Perioperative Physician Needs to Know.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: For patients with cancer, treatment may include combination therapy, including surgery and immunotherapy. Here, we review perioperative considerations for the patient prescribed immunotherapeutic agents. RECENT FINDINGS: The perioperative period is a poignant moment in the journey of a patient with cancer, potentially deemed most influential compared to other moments in the care continuum. Several immunotherapeutic medications have been employed near the time of surgery to potentially increase effectiveness. Of the various drug classes, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, cytokines, toll-like receptor agonists, and oncolytic viruses, among others, several notable immune-related adverse effects were noted. They range from minor effects to more serious ones, such as renal failure, myocarditis, and tumor growth. Surgery and immunotherapy are often employed in combination for primary treatment and prevention of cancer recurrence. Careful review and consideration of the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and toxicities of immunotherapy benefit the perioperative physician and their patients.

Are you seeing this: the impact of steep Trendelenburg position during robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy on intraocular pressure: a brief review of the literature.

With the increasing popularity, frequency, and acceptance of the robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy procedure, an awareness of unique intra- and postoperative complications is heightened, including that of increases in intraocular pressure. The steep Trendelenburg positioning required for operative exposure has been shown to increase this value. While the literature is infrequent and undeveloped, certain anesthetic parameters including deep neuromuscular blockade, modified positioning, and the use of dexmedetomidine have been shown to have mild-to-modest decreases in intraocular pressure for baseline. In the four randomized control trials and four observational studies that were found via PubMed/Medline search, the aforementioned techniques demonstrate some preliminary evidence of operative considerations in this unique patient population. These modifications may prove to have even greater significance in patients with pre-existing ophthalmologic pathologies, such as glaucoma, which were excluded from the studies' analyses. This review summarizes the early literature obtained in this subject, with the intent of emphasizing the initial hypotheses and identifying areas for future study.