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David Wisner, MD
Sacramento, Calif

Arch Surg. 1999;134:940.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Offner and associates, by way of a retrospective review of trauma patients, have attempted to add to the evidence that sex hormones affect the immune response. There is relatively strong and increasing evidence in experimental animals for differences between the sexes with respect to immune responsiveness. The authors provide a nice review of that accumulated evidence. They also review the somewhat less convincing studies to date suggesting clinically significant sex differences in immune responsiveness in humans.

The study is well conceived and well done. It is important to note, however, that there were no differences with respect to clinical outcome parameters (mortality, intensive care unit or hospital length of stay) between males and females despite a significant difference in major infection rates. The rates of multiple organ failure were also similar between male and female patients, perhaps surprising given that major infection is one of the stimuli . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Male Gender Is a Risk Factor for Major Infections After Surgery
Patrick J. Offner, Ernest E. Moore, and Walter L. Biffl
Arch Surg. 1999;134(9):935-940.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT