Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Blood Test Predicts Post-Op Recovery

November 20, 2015 By American Society of Anesthesiologists

A simple blood test taken before surgery may predict how quickly patients recover from their procedure, suggests a new study in the December issue of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). According to the study, identifying a patient’s immune state from blood samples taken before surgery, revealed patterns that may predict speed of recovery from postoperative pain and dysfunction.

Immune states are patient-specific immune responses to “stressors” that are released by cells during surgery, injury or trauma.

“Patients and physicians alike want to know how long pain and dysfunction will last after surgery, but the rate at which patients recover is highly variable and differs for every patient,” said Martin Angst, M.D., study author and professor of anesthesia at Stanford University School of Medicine, California. “Our research indicates that we can capture important aspects of each individual patient’s biology that accurately predict how they will handle and recover from surgery. This may ultimately enable us to provide personalized, cost-conscious approaches to aid recovery and have a major impact on perioperative medicine.”

In the current study, researchers examined whether inducing immune responses in pre-surgical blood samples correlated with the clinical recovery profile of 25 individual patients undergoing hip surgery. A patient’s pre-surgical immune state was identified in blood samples by inducing a signaling response, similar to the immune system’s response to surgery or trauma, across all major immune cell subsets found within the blood. The immune responses were then measured against outcomes contributing to prolonged recovery including postoperative pain, hip dysfunction and disability.

Patients recovered at very different rates (speed) ranging from days to weeks and even months in extreme cases. The authors observed a significant correlation between patients’ pre-surgical immune states and their speed of recovery from pain and hip dysfunction after surgery, which accounted for nearly 50 percent of the variability associated with the speed at which patients recovered. Although preoperative immune states were predictive of recovery across several domains including postsurgical pain and hip dysfunction, no significant correlation was observed regarding speed of recovery from fatigue and resulting disability. The current study using a single blood sample was much more predictive of clinical recovery than demographic or psychological factors.

“Our ultimate goal is to develop a blood test that can assess key attributes of a patient’s immune system, be applied to daily clinical practice, be performed in regular clinical laboratories and be predictive of an individual patient’s recovery profile,” said Dr. Angst. “Predictions could be used to counsel patients and manage their expectations or to stratify them prior to surgery by assigning patients at risk of slow recovery into prehabilitation programs or postponing surgery.”

An accompanying editorial authored by James C. Eisenach, M.D., editor-in-chief of Anesthesiology and Francis M. James, III professor of anesthesiology, physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, commented favorably on the study:

“The current study represents an important step forward in the prediction and potential manipulation of speed of recovery,” wrote Dr. Eisenach. “This work will likely spur research to determine whether a high-risk group can be easily identified for interventional trials and whether preoperative or postoperative immune modulation, such as with glucocorticoids (steroids), might speed recovery.”

Previously, the authors identified a strong immune correlation in postsurgical blood samples that predicted rate of recovery.

One of the study authors has a personal interest in Fluidigm, the manufacturer of the mass cytometer used to assess the blood samples in the study.

Related Articles Read More >

This is a screenshot of the remote robotic surgery technical guidelines appearing in the World Journal of Surgery.
New technical guidelines set to advance remote robotic surgery
An illustration of Embolization Inc.'s Nitinol Enhanced Device (NED).
This nitinol vascular embolization device has another shape memory material up its sleeve
A photo of nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy used for medical devices such as stents, heart valves, catheters and orthopedics.
What is nitinol and where is it used?
A photo of Johnson & Johnson MedTech's Polyphonic-connected Monarch robotics-assisted bronchoscopy system in the lab.
J&J MedTech’s global head of digital wants to fund your AI project
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe