Systemic inflammatory response during cardiopulmonary bypass: Axial flow versus radial flow oxygenators.

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the inflammatory effects of different oxygenator flow pattern types in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.

Methods: We designed this randomized, single-blind, prospective study of patients with coronary artery disease. We compared the systemic inflammatory effects of oxygenators with two types of flow: axial flow and radial flow.