Inflammation in Cardiac Surgery: Pathophysiology, Clinical Phenotypes, and Emerging Therapeutic Implications

The systemic inflammatory response triggered by cardiac surgery represents one of the most complex and clinically relevant biological processes in contemporary perioperative medicine. Traditionally regarded as an unavoidable epiphenomenon of Cardiopulmonary Bypass (CPB) and surgical trauma, inflammation is now increasingly recognized as a central determinant of postoperative organ dysfunction, recovery kinetics, and longer-term outcomes. At a mechanistic level, cardiac surgery activates converging inflammatory pathways driven by blood–biomaterial interaction, ischemia–reperfusion injury, tissue trauma, and neurohumoral stress.