Complete cerebral recovery after prolonged circulatory arrest. A report of two cases.

Two adult patients with severe heart disease regained full consciousness a few hours after circulatory arrest at normal temperature which lasted up to eighteen minutes, though both eventually died. Whilst the reason for their unusual cerebral recovery cannot be clearly established, it may have been primarily due to the cause of the circulatory arrest, exsanguinating haemorrhage during cardiac surgery, together with subsequent circulatory support. Several other factors may also have contributed to this outcome, but a review of present evidence suggests they were of much less importance.