Tag: Myocardial protection

During the average human lifespan, the heart beats more than 2.5 billion times, but for open-heart surgery, it must be temporarily arrested. The primary drug used to stop the heart during open-heart surgery is a high concentration of **potassium chloride**, delivered as part of a specialized solution known as cardioplegia. This solution induces a controlled, temporary cardiac arrest to provide a motionless, bloodless surgical field, while also protecting the heart muscle from ischemic damage.

Annually, hundreds of thousands of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgeries are performed in the United States. A crucial part of this procedure involves answering the question: **what drug stops the heart during bypass surgery?** The answer lies in a specialized solution called cardioplegia.