An Experimental Research into the Resuscitation of Dogs Killed by Anesthetics and Asphyxia

In a previous communication by one of us (Crile) resuscitation was at tempted by means of both direct and indirect cardiac massage, with and without artificial respiration, with and without intravenous saline infusion, and with and without the addition of adrenalin. The results of these experiments may be summarized as foUows: By cardiac massage alone animals were rarely resuscitated at any time after quiescence of the circulation and respiration; by combining either direct or indirect cardiac massage with artificial respiration and the headdown posture a certain percentage of the animals were recovered after the lapse of from one to three minutes. The results, however, were quite uncertain, and in the case of death from chloroform recovery w a s the exception. By adding to cardiac massage artificial respiration and intravenous saline infusion, resuscitations were in a slightly g~eater proportion successful. The same procedures, with the addition of adrenalin to the intravenous saline infusion, were markedly more successful in the deaths from asphyxia through rarely so in the cases of death from chloroform. It required in almost every instance a vigorous compression of the thorax over the heart for a considerable time, varying from five to ten minutes, before resuscitation could be accomplished. Even then there were a considerable number of failures. In the majority of these failures autopsy showed the heart to be in a state of marked distension, indicating complete cardiac paralysis; not infrequently when results were delayed, the acute cardiac dilatation was partly relieved by venesection