Annals of vascular surgery
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of N-acetylcysteine in attenuating ischemic reperfusion injury in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting with cardiopulmonary bypass.
Ischemic reperfusion injury due to oxidative stress remains one of the challenging problems during cardiac surgeries. The imbalance in the production of free radicals and antioxidants in vivo determines the extent of oxidative stress. The use of antioxidants in cardioplegia has become an important strategy to salvage the myocardium from the attack of these radicals. ⋯ The use of NAC in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting using cardiopulmonary bypass decreased oxidative stress substantially. However, it did not lead to improvement in the level of cardiac troponin I, a marker of myocardial injury, in our study. Hence, the cardioprotective effect of NAC and the adaptation of the myocardium to oxidative stress should be extensively studied.