19 minutes <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kiq3K_26MWc"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kiq3K_26MWc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
There are many interventions that can rescue people after longer periods of warm cardiac arrest, although none are yet in wide clinical use. Perhaps the most promising is post-resuscitation hypothermia, or cooling the patient a few degrees after the heart is restarted. Research has shown that resuscitation without brain injury is possible after up to 10 minutes of cardiac arrest (plus another ten minutes of low flow CPR) if cooling is started at the same time as CPR (Critical Care Medicine 19, 379-389 (1991)). The combination of post-resuscitation cooling and a complex drug protocol can further extend recovery without neurological deficit to 16 minutes of warm cardiac arrest in dogs (Critical Care Research, Inc., unpublished). Finally, isolated brains of monkeys and cats have recovered normal electrical function after high pressure reperfusion following 60 minutes of warm circulatory arrest (Science 168, 375-376 (1970)). This result was later extended to long-term recovery of whole cats after one hour of no blood flow to the brain, although with some neurological deficit (J Neurol Sci. 77, 305-320 (1987)). -From Alcor website (Life Extension Foundation)
