Conditions: Atrial Fibrillation
Keywords: Atrial fibrillation Cardiac valve repair Aneurysm repair CABG On-pump Cardiac surgery Vitamin C
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 33
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to determine whether vitamin C is effective in the prophylaxis of post-operative atrial fibrillation in on-pump cardiac surgery

Detailed description:
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the single most common post-operative complication after on-pump cardiac surgery, ranging from roughly 25% in CABG procedures, up to 65% in valve replacement procedures. The presence of AF in cardiac surgery patients doubles the morbidity amongst these patients, as well as raising the mortality rates. VitC is an electron donor for a number of enzymatic systems, reducing potentially harmful free radicals. In post-procedural AF, there is increased peroxynitrite concentration, which is a target for vitamin C. A randomized, double blind study will be conducted in order to establish the efficiency of vitamin C as prophylaxis for postoperative AF.

Arms:
arm 1: L-Carnitine intravenously (2 gr/day \[1grX2\] for 2 days prior to surgery, and postoperatively for 4 days arm 2: VitC intravenously (2g/day \[500mgX4\] for 2 days prior to surgery, and postoperatively for 4 days arm 3: None

Interventions: intervention 1: Vitamin C intervention 2: L-Carnitine intervention 3: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: VitC intravenously (2g/day \[500mgX4\] for 2 days prior to surgery, and postoperatively for 4 days intervention 2: L-Carnitine intravenously (2 gr/day \[1grX2\] for 2 days prior to surgery, and postoperatively for 4 days intervention 3: Placebo

Protocol document: