“…The acute stress response to major surgery can determine a severe inflammatory response syndrome and profound changes in the endocrine, neuroendocrine and immune system responses, as well as significant changes in organ function [16,17], leading to fluid retention [6,17,18]. Taken together, the net effect is an increased catabolism with increased substrate availability for energy production, and sodium and water retention to maintain fluid volume and haemodynamic stability [6,17].…”