A new case of Lazarus phenomenon?

The international medical literature described sporadical cases of an exceptional event called the "Lazarus phoenomenon". This is the spontaneous reviviscence of an individual after a long time of asystolia following a cardiac accident depending on different pathogenesis (i.e. aritmia, ischaemic stroke, haemorrhage, brainstem death). All of the reported cases concerned patients presenting recovery after discontinuation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Different explanations of the phisiopathology of the phoenomenon can be given, first of all, the latency of catecholamine action in such patients. We report the case of an 81-year-old woman who experienced a cardiac accident on the street. Once the cardiopulmonary resuscitation was interrupted, the patient presented life activities after some minutes. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.