Kiss A, et al. - In the present study, researchers investigated if preconditioning with argon gas enhances recovery of cardiac function following cardioplegic arrest. They allocated anaesthetized and ventilated experimental models to (i) the control group (control IR, n = 10) and (ii) the in vivo group (argon IR), which received 3 cycles of argon (50% argon, 21% oxygen and 29% nitrogen, n = 10) administered for 5 min interspersed with 5 min of a gas mixture (79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen). Findings revealed enhanced cardiac functional recovery in the experimental hearts arrested with histidine–tryptophan–ketoglutarate cardioplegia in relation to preconditioning with argon. Hence, in cardiac surgery, it represents a potential novel cardioprotective approach.