• Elena Bignami, Marcello Guarnieri, Marina Pieri, Francesco De Simone, Alcira Rodriguez, Luigi Cassarà, Rosalba Lembo, Giovanni Landoni, and Alberto Zangrillo.
• 1 Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Department, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.
• Perfusion. 2017 Oct 1; 32 (7): 547-553.

BackgroundEvery year, over 1 million cardiac surgical procedures are performed all over the world. Reducing myocardial necrosis could have strong implications in postoperative clinical outcomes. Volatile anaesthetics have cardiac protective properties in the perioperative period of cardiac surgery. However, little data exists on the administration of volatile agents during cardiopulmonary bypass. The aim of this study was to assess if volatile anaesthetics administration during cardiopulmonary bypass reduces cardiac troponin release after cardiac surgery.Materials And MethodsWe retrospectively analysed data from 942 patients who underwent cardiac surgery in a teaching hospital. The only difference between the groups was the management of anaesthesia during CPB. The volatile group received sevoflurane or desflurane while the control group received a combination of propofol infusion and fentanyl boluses. Patients who received volatile anaesthetics during cardiopulmonary bypass (n=314) were propensity-matched 1:2 with patients who did not receive volatile anaesthetics during CPB (n=628).ResultsWe found a reduction in peak postoperative troponin I, from 7.8 ng/ml (4.8-13.1) in the non-volatile group to 6.8 ng/ml (3.7-11.8) in the volatile group (p=0.013), with no differences in mortality [2 (0.6%) in the volatile group and 2 (0.3%) in the non-volatile group (p=0.6)].ConclusionsAdding volatile anaesthetics during cardiopulmonary bypass was associated with reduced peak postoperative troponin levels. Larger studies are required to confirm our data and to assess the effect of volatile agents on survival.

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