Late Postconditioning After Cardiac Surgery - Bridge From Surrogate Markers to Clinical Outcome

In a recent randomized controlled (RCT; NCT00924222) trial the investigators demonstrated in 102 patients that late post-conditioning with sevoflurane performed in the intensive care unit (ICU) reduced myocardial injury. These patients presented with lower troponin T values on the first post-operative day compared with patients undergoing propofol sedation. In order to assess possible clinical relevant long-term implications in patients enrolled in this study, the current retrospective analysis is performed focusing on cardiac and non-cardiac events during the first six months after surgery.

Methods: All patients who had successfully completed the late post-conditioning trial were included in this follow-up. Primary and secondary endpoints were the proportion of patients experiencing cardiac and non-cardiac events, respectively. Additionally, therapeutic interventions such as initiation or change of drug therapy, interventional treatment or surgery were assessed.