Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the current standard of treatment for cardiac arrest, uses chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing to keep the flow of oxygen and blood active when the heart has stopped. While early implementation of CPR can help to improve survival, the brain of a patient who has been successfully revived remains at high risk for injury for up to 72 hours following the restoration of the heartbeat. This is, in fact, the time in which it is most susceptible to injury due to ongoing inflammation and other harmful processes that were triggered when the brain was cut off from oxygen during cardiac arrest. The key to preventing brain injury at this critical juncture is to give timely treatments that may protect the brain. Otherwise, a person who has been successfully revived may not return to the same level of functioning as before their cardiac arrest.

Study Design

This study consists of giving people who have been successfully resuscitated using CPR a combination of medications that have been shown to potentially protect and aid the recovery of brain cells. These medications are all currently approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat other diseases and have been shown to be safe in humans. They include magnesium and the common antibiotic minocycline, both of which have significant brain-protecting properties, but are not currently being used for patients after cardiac arrest.

Visit Community Consultations & Interviews for information about how to get involved in this study.