Complete neurological recovery after 13 minutes of hypovolemic hypotension.

It has been shown experimentally that irreversible brain injury and death may follow after 5-7 min of cerebral ischemia and that even brief periods, 2 min or less, can produce focal damage to the nervous system. All published studies demonstrating a protective effect of barbiturates have been performed in animals. A patient is presented who recovered full neurological function after 13 min of hypovolemic hypotension. This remarkable outcome may have been due to the rapid institution of high-dose barbiturate therapy. The extent to which such therapy affected his outcome is unclear, but does add to the growing body of evidence suggesting a favorable effect from this type of barbiturate therapy.