Paediatric Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Cyclosporin A- Is here a Clinical Benefit?

Overview

Experimental evidence shows that Cyclosporin A reduces traumatic and ischaemic/reperfusion injury to braintissue. Authors test the hypothesis that survivors treated by Cyclosporin A at the time of cardiac arrest will havebetter neurodevelopmental outcome. They reviewed retrospectively outcome of cardiopulmonary resuscitationbetween children with congenital or acquired heart disease, and children who underwent cardiac transplantationand were treated with Cyclosporin A in tertiary pediatric cardiac center between 1990-2001. Patients surviving to3 months following cardiac arrest lasting over 7 minutes were assessed using 2 neurodevelopmental scoring systems(Pediatric Overall, and Cerebral, Performance Category scales). There were 2 survivors from 69 non-transplantpatients (3%) and 8 survivors from 15 transplant patients (53%; p

Key words:
reperfusion injury, neuroprotection, Cyclosporin A, heart transplantation