Randomized clinical study of thiopental loading in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest.

After restoration of spontaneous circulation and adequate oxygenation, 262 comatose survivors of cardiac arrest were randomly assigned to receive standard brain-oriented intensive care or the same standard therapy plus a single intravenous loading dose of thiopental (30 mg per kilogram of body weight). The study was designed to have an 80 percent probability of detecting a 20 percent reduction in the incidence of permanent postischemic cerebral dysfunction. Base-line characteristics were similar in the two treatment groups. At the end of one year of follow-up, there was no statistically significant difference between treatment groups in the proportion of patients who died (77 percent of the thiopental vs. 80 percent of the standard-therapy group), survived with "good" cerebral recovery (20 percent of the thiopental vs. 15 percent of the standard-therapy group), or survived with permanent severe neurologic damage (2 percent of the thiopental vs. 5 percent of the standard-therapy group). The results of this study do not support the use of thiopental for brain resuscitation after cardiac arrest.