by Gennady POROSHENKO, Dr. Sc. (Biol.), Head of Department of the Scientific Research Institute of General Reanimatology, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (Moscow) Doctors today have everything they need-technical equipment and technological procedures (developed mainly thanks to the studies of Academician Vladimir Negovsky, Member of the USSR Medical Academy and founder of Russian reanimatology) which can bring a patient back to life after a cardiac arrest. It is a much more difficult problem trying to restore the normal "interior" of a patient so as to bring him back to normal productive life. It is therefore only natural that most of the studies by our Institute specialists are focused on this problem. Pages. 29 Irrespective of what could be the cause leading to a critical condition of a patient with a lethal outcome* (lesion of a major artery with a massive loss of blood, acute craneocerebral trauma, bullet wound, infection, cardiac fibrillation, difficult childbirth, etc.) the main cause of the crisis is hypoxia produced by arrest of breathing and blood circulation-arrest of oxygen supply to the vital organs of a patient. All vital processes are based on a mechanism of transition of a free electron from hydrogen to oxygen which takes place on mitochondria membranes-tiny components of a cell produced by Mother Nature for that purpose. Produced as a result is the main "carrier" of energy of the organism-adenosine triphosphoric acid. That is why the first thing to do in dealing with such patients is trying to restore their breathing and heartbeat. Thanks to such efforts the vital "source of life" is supplied to the cells and tissues of a patient. But in the conditions of upsets of the general regulation mechanisms, homeostasis, and intercellular interaction on the initial stages of such interventions it can do more harm than good. There begins in tissues active formation of free radicals which rapidly turns into a kind of chain reactions. Mechanisms of da ... Read more