Unfortunately, although pre-conditioning has been extensively studied and has shown to reduce reperfusion injury in both animal and human models, it is difficult to practically apply this in a patient-care setting. This is because the timing of acute cardiac or neurologic ischemic events is difficult to reliably predict. Accordingly, this has generated great interest in a theory known as post-conditioning. Post conditioning or ischemic post-conditioning is a concept whereby short, repetitive ischemic episodes applied during early reperfusion of ischemic myocardium will attenuate reperfusion injury. It appears that both pre-conditioning and post-conditioning target the same pathophysiological mechanism, or share effects on a final common pathway involved in the pathogenesis of reperfusion injury. In a recent study, the effects of ischemic post-conditioning were compared to ischemic preconditioning in the coronary circulation of an animal model. An open chest, left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion model was used in 29 dots (10 controls, 9 preconditioning, and 10 post-conditioning). When compared to controls, both interventions showed protective myocardial effects. The strategy of post-conditioning had comparable results to ischemic preconditioning regarding reduction in infarct size.