Early postoperative substitution procedure of the antioxidant ascorbic acid

Postoperatively reduced concentration of ascorbic acid (AA) in plasma (≤45.5 μmol/l (≤800 μg/dl)) is commonly interpreted as increased metabolic requirements, but it is not shown yet that the patient benefits from a substitution toward normal levels of AA. This is due to the missing knowledge on how to substitute AA effectively to normal plasma values in postoperative patients. Therefore, a postoperative AA substitution procedure “overnight” to normal values in plasma was investigated on a postoperative intensive care unit (ICU) in a university hospital.