Remote Ischaemic Preconditioning for Heart Surgery (RIPHeart-Study)

RIPC will be induced during anesthesia by four 5-min cycles of upper limb ischemia and 5-min reperfusion using a blood-pressure cuff inflated to a pressure 200 mm Hg, whereas the pressure has to be at least 20 mm Hg greater than the systolic arterial pressure measured via the arterial line.

Sham placement of the blood pressure cuff around a dummy arm inflated to a pressure of 200 mm Hg with four cycles of 5 min inflation and 5 min deflation.