Myocardial microcirculatory dysfunction after prolonged ventricular fibrillation and resuscitation.

Objective: The etiology of postresuscitation myocardial stunning is unknown but is thought to be related to either ischemia occurring during cardiac arrest and resuscitation efforts and/or reperfusion injury after restoration of circulation. A potential common pathway for postischemia/reperfusion end-organ dysfunction is microvascular injury. We hypothesized that myocardial microcirculatory function is markedly abnormal in the postresuscitation period.