| Levosimendan pre-treatment improves outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery (2009) | |||||||||||||
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| Background The calcium sensitizer levosimendan has anti-ischaemic effects mediated via the opening of sarcolemmal and mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channels. These properties suggest potential application in clinical situations where cardioprotection would be beneficial, such as cardiac surgery. We thus decided to investigate whether pharmacological pre-treatment with levosimendan reduces intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay in patients undergoing elective myocardial revascularization under cardiopulmonary bypass. Methods One hundred and six patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting were randomly assigned in a double-blind manner to receive levosimendan or placebo. Levosimendan (24 µg kg−1) or placebo was administered as a slow i.v. bolus over a 10 min period before the initiation of bypass. Results Tracheal intubation time and the length of ICU stay were significantly reduced in the levosimendan group (P12 h was significantly higher in the control group (18.0% vs 3.8%; P=0.021). Compared with control patients, levosimendan-treated patients had lower postoperative troponin I concentrations (P | |||||||||||||
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