Sevoflurane preconditioning preserves myocardial and renal function as assessed by biochemical markers in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery under cardioplegic arrest. This study demonstrated for the first time translocation of protein kinase C isoforms delta and epsilon in human myocardium in response to sevoflurane.

This prospective randomized clinical study provides evidence of a protective role for pharmacological preconditioning by sevoflurane in late cardiac events in CABG patients, which may be related to favourable transcriptional changes in pro- and antiprotective proteins.