[Two patients who recovered fully from profound circulatory and respiratory failure after cardiac arrest]

Two patients who were both 62-year-old males, also with various complications fully recovered from profound circulatory and respiratory failure. Both patients had experienced cardiac arrest one week or three months previously. Ischemic insult of brain produced from the prior cardiac arrest may be related to these excellent outcomes, because induction of tolerance to brain ischemia was demonstrated in animals which had undergone prior sublethal brain ischemia.