Efecto de la cirurgía (cesárea) sobre el estado de nutrición en vitamina C y cinc en gestantes sanas

introduction: vitamin c and zinc are nutrients involved in the sintesis of new tissues, and have a key role in wound healing after surgery. both nutrients are cofactors for enzymes, and vitamin c is a water-soluble antioxidant. objective: to study the variation of indicators for these nutrients and other hematological parameters in a group of healthy pregnant women who had cesarean section. material and methods: blood samples were collected two hours before, 24 hours and 30 days after surgery. cases that required transfusion or diagnosed with postoperatory complications were eliminated from the analysis. vitamin c was measured by the 2,4-dinitrophenyl hydrazine method and zinc by atomic spectroscopy. hematological parameters were assessed using a coulter cell counter. data were analyzed through an anova model for repeat measures. results: no significant change in hemoglobin or hematocrite was observed after surgery in this study. vitamin c in plasma and in leukocytes had a significant drop in the post-surgery evaluation. zinc in plasma did not show any significant change. conclusions: findings from this project support observations in previous studies on the decrease of ascorbic acid levels in the post-surgery, probably due to oxidative stress. this drop is independent of the transoperatory blood loss. all indicators for vitamin c, zinc and iron showed significant increase in the 30 d post-surgery evaluation.