Myocardial failure in experimental hypothermia

Hypothermic animals subjected to total venous inflow occlusion and open cardiotomy develop elevations in right atrial mean pressure and postmortem evidences of myocardial failure. Acetyl strophanthidin, given before inflow stasis, prevented myocardial failure and increased survival. Myocardial failure was attributed to anoxia resulting from decreased coronary blood flow and alterations in the oxygen content of the blood supplying the myocardium. Perfusion of the coronary system with small quantities of oxygenated blood obtained from donor animals permitted open cardiotomy with survival.