[Resuscitation after three hours of cardiac arrest with severe hypothermia following a toxic coma].

We report the case of a 37-year-old woman who survived from severe hypothermia (rectal temperature: 22 degrees C) and prolonged cardiac arrest with asystole after benzodiazepine and tricyclic antidepressant poisoning. Basic-cardiopulmonary resuscitation and mechanical ventilation was started by a French Mobile Intensive-Care unit. Spontaneous circulation was restored at 25 degrees C under epinephrin after three hours of chest compression from home to the intensive-care unit and rewarming with extracorporeal circulation. The patient was discharged at day 13 without any neurological deficit. The discussion focuses on the benefit of extracorporeal-membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as extracorporeal circulation device through femoral access, the differential diagnosis between death and recoverable cardiac arrest and neuroprotection.