ABSTRACT
O n October 16, 1846, William T.G. Morton initiated the modern era of anesthesia.The developments that followed the first use of ether would permit the realization of increasingly complex surgical procedures, such as cardiac revascularization. Since the introduction of myocardial revascularization surgery in 1953, most procedures
have been performed under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). However, in the early 1990s, several factors led to renewed interest in OPCAB. Technical and pharmacological advances in interventional cardiology made the treatment of angina more efficient. The reduced cost and relatively low mortality and morbidity of these techniques rendered the surgical option less appealing. CPB is known to trigger an inflammatory response. For most patients, the conse quences of this inflammatory response are benign, but for a minority, the systemic effects are not negligible; being deleterious, they lead to increased mortality and morbidity.
