Researchers from Guangzhou have developed a new method of cardiac arrest resuscitation that is expected to increase the success rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and have a significant impact on the development of emergency care systems for critical conditions.
Cardiac arrest patients often suffer serious brain damage, which is the leading cause of death. Animal studies have shown that within seconds of cardiac arrest, the brain’s oxygen supply is depleted. This leads to instant loss of consciousness.
Previous studies have suggested that the brain can tolerate ischemic damage for only five to eight minutes. This contributed to the low success rate of resuscitation of cardiac arrest patients.
An international research team led by He Xiaoshun from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in South China’s Guangdong Province has applied an innovative “ex vivo brain preservation technique”. As a result, she successfully “revived” an isolated pig brain that had been “dead” for 50 minutes.
The study used a pig that had already experienced circulatory death as an experimental animal. After separating its brain from its body, the researchers connected it to an external life support system through intubation, creating a system that supports brain resuscitation.
The results showed that the pig’s brain was successfully “revived”, brain functions were restored, and viability was preserved.
This system not only includes components for an artificial heart and artificial lungs, but also uses normothermic blood perfusion technology to keep the pig’s liver alive. It provides fresh, oxygenated and metabolically stable blood circulation in the isolated pig brain.
The study showed that due to the support of the ex vivo life support system, the swelling of the isolated brain was significantly reduced, and the viability and microstructure of nerve cells were significantly improved. Thus, it became possible to restore and maintain the electrical activity of the brain.
The study also emphasizes the crucial role of the liver in the pathogenesis of brain damage after cardiac arrest.
The study was recently published as a cover article in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
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