A study of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) serum levels in rats subjected to fecal peritonitis and treated with intraperitoneal ropivacaine

The objective of this study was to assess the cytokine serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in rats subjected to fecal peritonitis and treated with peritoneal lavage with 0.2% ropivacaine by peritoneal lavage. We subjected 16 Wistar rats to laparotomy 6 hours after the induction of fecal peritonitis with autogenous stool and subsequently divided the rats randomly into 4 groups: I-control, no treatment; II- drying of the abdominal cavity; III- lavage of the abdominal cavity with 3 mL of 0.9% normal saline and drying; IV- lavage of the abdominal cavity with 3 mL of 0.2% ropivacaine and drying. Six hours following the laparotomy, the animals underwent cardiac puncture, and 1 mL of blood was collected for cytokine assessment before the animals were euthanized. The lavage with ropivacaine resulted in smaller TNF-α levels compared with those observed in the other treatment groups (p 0.05) between groups III and IV. Peritoneal lavage with 0.2% ropivacaine was shown to reduce plasma levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in the treatment of fecal peritonitis in rats.