Annals of cardiac anaesthesia
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The institution of cardiopulmonary bypass generates many pro-inflammatory cytokines and several clinical variables, including temperature, have been shown to influence cytokine release during and after cardiopulmonary bypass. The release of tumour necrosis factor and interleukin-6 are the best predictors of post-cardiopulmonary bypass related morbidity. Their release during normothermic and hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass and the correlation with clinical parameters of organ injury was studied. ⋯ The normothermic group had a better respiratory index in the postoperative period, early extubation was possible, had better clinical haemodynamics, a shorter cardiopulmonary bypass time and had reduced requirement of defibrillation after the release of aortic cross clamp. We conclude that the release of interleukin-6 was thermo-dependent but did not correlate with the clinical signs of organ injury. Tumour necrosis factor levels were significantly raised after the cardiopulmonary bypass but the rise was not thermo-dependent.