Multimodal cardioprotective strategy in cardiac surgery (the ProCCard trial): Study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Background Myocardial damage in patients undergoing cardiac surgery increases both morbidity and mortality. Different protective strategies dealing with either preconditioning or postconditioning or assessing a single aspect of cardioprotection have shown conflicting results. We tested the hypothesis that a multimodal approach would improve cardioprotection and limit myocardial damage following cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.