[Circular hemorrhagic subendocardial necrosis after heart arrest and resuscitation]

A 19 year old boy, previously healthy suffered a cardiac arrest by getting up. Ten minutes afterwards the general practitioner commenced cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 15 minutes later ventricular fibrillation developed and the emergency physician carried out intubation and repeated defibrillation. During the next few hours a stabilization of the circulatory system was achieved. Five days after the cardiac arrest brain death occurred. The postmortem findings on the heart (only a heart section was performed) showed extensive circular hemorrhagic subendocardial necrosis with initial organization of the left ventricular wall and the septum with a well-preserved subendocardial area. In the right ventricular wall only a few small areas of organization were observed. All lesions were consistent with the cardiac arrest suffered 5 days previously. The morphological changes differ from those of a usual hemorrhagic infarction and of the sequences of a cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The circular subendocardial necroses occur after a cardiac arrest which exceeds the resuscitation time of the heart. They do not respect the area of coronary distribution and their hemorrhagic component develops after successful reanimation within the necrotic myocardium.