Ischaemic preconditioning alters hepatic blood supply
Liver surgery has become a safe procedure in the past years and is mainly done because of malignant tumours. A common strategy to reduce blood loss during surgery is to temporarily shut down the blood supply to the liver [pringle manoeuvre (PM)], which, however may be associated with severe hepatocellular injury and consequent enhanced morbidity. Many efforts were undertaken to overcome the deleterious effects of ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury of the liver caused by the PM. A new method of hepatocellular protection comprises ischaemic preconditioning (IP), i.e. an additional short ischaemia and reperfusion period prior to sustained ischaemia, as set by the PM. However, mechanisms of protection by IP are still largely unknown. Also, no data were available which comment on hepatic macroperfusion under different conditions, such as IP...