Systemic inflammatory response and the splanchnic bed in cardiopulmonary bypass.

The splanchnic bed undoubtedly undergoes sub-clinical injury in the majority of patients undergoing routine CPB. Dependent upon patient and perfusion factors, this injury may be self-limiting or develop through a cascade of inflammatory mediators into multisystem organ failure. The gut may be damaged by the bioincompatibility of CPB, but it is, as a consequence of hypoperfusion and dysoxia, also a major source of bacterial and nonbacterial inflammatory mediators.