Procedures
hospital-acquired infections, arrhythmias, Frailty, sternal wound infection, stroke/cerebral vascular accident
ARRHYTHMIAS, MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION, CARDIOVASCULAR COMPLICATIONS
According to the group allocation, patients either received 2000 μg/L (to convert to micromoles per liter, multiply by 0.0127) of intravenous selenium (sodium selenite; Selenase) within 30 minutes after induction of anesthesia and prior to initiation of CPB, then 2000 μg/L of intravenous selenium immediately on admission to the postoperative ICU, then 1000 μg/L of intravenous selenium each successive morning while in ICU or placebo at the same time points for a maximum of 10 days (eFigure 1 in In general, enrolled patients were followed up daily throughout the ICU stay. Baseline demographics (ie, age, sex, height, weight, diagnosis, EuroSCORE II, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score, cardiovascular medication) and functional status (ie, Barthel Activity of Daily Living, Clinical Frailty Scale, Health Related Quality of Life with Short Form-36) were recorded before surgery. If possible, reevaluation of functional status was made 3 and 6 months after randomization. Moreover, data on surgical procedure and duration, perioperative hemodynamic profile (ie, heart rate, systemic and pulmonary blood pressure, central venous pressure, cardiac output), and laboratory measures (ie, complete blood cell count, international normalized ratio, blood lactate, creatinine) recorded postanesthetic induction, upon ICU admission, and at the first postoperative day were assessed. Additionally, the occurrence of surgical and cardiovascular complications (eg, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, stroke/cerebral vascular accident, deep sternal wound infection) and hospital-acquired infections was monitored throughout the study period, while ICU and hospital length of stay were assessed at discharge.