Ischemic brain injury due to heart and vascular surgery causes more than 100,000 deaths annually in Europe and the United States. In addition, approximately 10–20% of patients undergoing heart and vascular surgery – at least 1.5 million people in Europe and the United States every year – suffer from ischemic brain injury as a side-effect of their surgery. Now researchers suggest that they may have come up with a new treatment to this problem.