Superoxygen therapy: a Bayesian breath of fresh air for myocardial salvage.

In North America, every 25 seconds someone will have a coronary event and every minute someone will die of one.1 ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is the most dramatic manifestation of coronary artery disease and remains as one of the most important causes of mortality in the industrialized world. Prompt and successful reperfusion therapy (either pharmacologically with use of fibrinolytic therapy or mechanically with primary percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI]) is currently the cornerstone of acute management of STEMI to salvage ischemic myocardium and limit infarct size. Although undoubtedly beneficial, reperfusion of an occluded artery represents “a double-edge sword,”2 because restoration of epicardial coronary flow initiates a series of complex biochemical and molecular phenomena, which will ultimately mitigate myocardial healing. Thus, with reperfusion comes reperfusion injury.3