The pathophysiology of myocardial reperfusion: a pathologist's perspective

Abstract

However, although beneficial in terms of myocardial salvage, the process of reperfusion may itself elicit pathologic consequences and the term “reperfusion injury” has been introduced.^4–6 With this term, we normally refer to causal events associated with reperfusion that had not occurred during the preceding ischaemic period. Although ischaemia–reperfusion injury is now a well accepted phenomenon in the research experimental setting, its clinical relevance remains to be proven.⁷ The main difficulty is in differentiating between the pre-existing ischaemic damage and any subsequent damage occurring during the reperfusion phase.