Does preoperative administration of allopurinol protect the lungs from ischemia-reperfusion injury occuring during cardiopulmonary bypass?

Background: It is investigated whether preoperative allopurinol administration protects lung injury induced by cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).

Methods: Sixty patients with coronary artery disease who need elective coronary artery bypass grafting operations by using CPB were taken into this study. They were divided into two groups; control and allopurinol. Allopurinol (300 mg/day) was administered to the latter group during the preoperative period of 5 days. Standard CPB procedures were used in all cases. Blood was sampled for TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 before anesthesia (T0), after anesthesia and before skin incision (T1), before CPB (T2), after aortic declamping (T3), at the end of CPB (T4), 6 hours after operation (T5), 12 hours after operation (T6), and 24 hours after operation (T7). Pulmonary function test (PFT) was performed before and following the 6th day of operation.

Results: TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8 increased in both groups at T3, T4, T5 and T6 compared to control (p<0.05). TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-8 levels were lower in group A at T3, T4, T5 and T6 (p<0.05). Creatinin phosphokinase (CK) levels were lower in group A at T6 (p<0.05). CK-MB levels were lower in group A than in group C (p<0.05). Pulmonary function test (PFT) did not yield any differences between the groups.

Conclusions: Preoperative allopurinol administration decreases the inflammation and myocardial injury according to biochemical markers of ischemia reperfusion injury. However, this biochemical success does not rebound to PFT (Tab. 5, Ref. 15).