Fig. 2

Flowchart of the trial profile. One hundred seven patients were assessed for eligibility, of whom 60 were included and randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups (29 patients in the rIPC group and 31 patients in the control group). Two patients were excluded after randomization: early postoperative MRI was not evaluated in 2 patients in the rIPC group. Therefore, 58 patients were assessed for occurrence of postoperative ischemia