Dr. Michael Walsh

Award: KRESCENT New Investigator Award
Institution: McMaster University
Year: 2011-2014

Lay Summary

Dr. Michael Walsh is a new investigator at McMaster University. He obtained his MD from the University of Calgary. He completed his Post-Doctoral Fellowship, funded by the KRESCENT Program, with Dr. David Jayne at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge (U.K.) and Dr. Philip Devereaux at McMaster University. Annually, 2 million patients worldwide (30,000 Canadians) undergo heart surgery. Although this procedure can be life saving, 1 in 20 patients will not survive their hospital stay. Sudden kidney, heart and brain injuries that occur during surgery are important causes of death after heart surgery and patients with kidney disease are at particularly high risk for all of these injuries. Remote ischemic preconditioning involves the inflation of a tourniquet or blood pressure cuff on the thigh to briefly stop blood flow. This activates the body's own protective systems that can prevent damage to the kidneys, heart and brain. Preconditioning is a promising and simple treatment but there are no studies large enough to determine whether RIPC improves the outcomes most important to patients (e.g. survival). Dr. Walsh will perform a very large study of several thousand patients from around the world that will determine if Remote Ischemic Preconditioning reduces severe kidney injury, heart attacks, strokes or death in patients undergoing heart surgery. The study is called the Remote IscheMic Preconditioning in cArdiaC surgery Trial (Remote IMPACT).