Summary
This study evaluated the effect of oral triiodothyronine (T3) replacement therapy, starting on the day of the surgery, on thyroid hormone concentrations and clinical outcome in high‐risk patients undergoing valvular heart surgery. Fifty patients were randomly allocated to either T3 or placebo. In the treatment (T3) group patients received 20 μg of oral or nasogastric T3 every 12 h starting just before induction of anaesthesia and until the first day after surgery. T3 concentrations were significantly higher in the T3 group than the placebo group from 1 to 36 h after removal of the aortic cross clamp. The number of patients requiring vasopressin after discontinuing cardiopulmonary bypass was significantly greater in the placebo group than the T3 group. Significantly fewer patients required vasopressors in the T3 group on the first day after surgery.
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