Cardiopulmonary Bypass, Inflammation and How to Defy it: Focus on Pharmacological Interventions

One of the most common health problems are diseases of the cardiovascular system with a great bulk of disease burden; while a considerable number of cardiac patients undergo cardiac surgery; cardiac surgical procedures with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) are nowadays among the top list of surgical procedures. More than half of a century has passed since the introduction of total cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). One of the main untoward effects of CPB is systemic inflammation; causing an “acute phase reaction” responsible for the production of other unwanted postoperative complications. The humoral and cellular components of the immune system are among the main parts of these compensatory mechanisms. There are a number of therapeutic agents used to suppress this inflammatory process. Since CPB is composed of a multitude of items, there are many studies assessing the possible methods and therapeutics for prevention or treatment of inflammation in patients undergoing CPB. According to a conventional classification, the anti-inflammatory methods are classified as either pharmacologic strategies or technical strategies. The pharmacologic strategies are those with the usage of one or more therapeutic agents; while the technical strategies are those that try to modify the CPB techniques. However, in this manuscript, the main pharmacological strategies are discussed.