Abstract
Postoperative metabolism is characterized with marked nitrogen output and catabolism. Therefore, determination of the essential amino acid requirement in the postoperative period required special considerations on postoperative metabolism, even in the animal experiment. In this study these criteria were examined in various conditions. The following conditions were found to be acceptable to determine the requirement of the essential amino acids in the postoperative period. 1) Male rat with an age of over 3 months and weight of 100-150g should be used. 2) During observation the most suitable amount of diet was 10g of 10% casein synthetic diet per day. 3) Among various surgical interventions, third degree of burn covering 20% of body surface was suitable in extent of surgical intervention, uniformity and low surgical mortality. 4) Essential amino acid requirement was best determined by weight changes. In young growing male rats (100-150g) subjected to third degree of burncoveting 20% of body surface, the supplementation effects of methionine, lysine plus methionine, and lysinemethionine plus tryptophan on weight changes in the postoperative period were studied under the previously mentioned conditions. The requirement of methionine did not increase and that of lysine increased in the postoperativeperiod.In rats fed diet containing lysine 2 times as much as normal requirement, weight loss at 4th postoperative week was less by 10g than in those fed diet containing normal requirement of lysine. The supplement of methionine in the postoperative period was not much effective. In the postoperative period, the amount of protein in the diet was markedly related to postoperative changes in weight.
