Description of Intervention
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is well recognized for its antioxidant and free radical scavenging properties [8] in addition to acting as a vasodilator [9]. Hence, theoretically, NAC is able to counteract several mechanisms of kidney injury during cardiac surgery, namely the systemic inflammatory response, free radical injury and ischemia. [10]
Many randomised controlled trials have been conducted on different measures to prevent acute kidney injury. These measures range from different pharmacological therapies, such as fenoldopam or pentoxifylline, to surgical techniques such as off pump cardiopulmonary bypass to remote ischemic preconditioning. However, among the randomised controlled trials conducted on different preventive measures, the administration of N-acetylcysteine was the most promising measure with the greatest number of randomised controlled trials conducted on its usage. Hence this review was conducted to assess the overall effect of N-acetylcysteine based on past randomised controlled trials.