2.1. Trial Design and Setting 
acute cholecystitis
ACUTE CHOLECYSTITIS
The trial was a single centre, randomised clinical trial including patients from the Department of Surgery, Zealand University Hospital in Denmark. It was designed to test the effect of RIPC on postoperative endothelial function in patients diagnosed with acute cholecystitis undergoing subacute laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Patients were consecutively screened and included after providing oral and written informed consent between September 2019 and September 2021. The trial was approved by The Danish Data Protection Agency (no. REG-020-2019) and by the Regional Ethics Committee of Region Zealand Denmark (no. SJ-762). The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (no. NCT04156711) and reported according to the CONSORT Statement [