The Bretylium Saga: A Novel “old drug” for Cardiac Resuscitation

Dr. Marvin Bacaner returned from World War II and enrolled in Boston University Medical School then joining the University of Minnesota faculty in the Department of Physiology studying myocardial metabolism. In his studies on cardiac metabolism he would perform myocardial biopsies on dogs which caused them to develop ventricular fibrillation, which disrupted his experiments. While studying a new anti-hypertensive drug, Bretylium, he observed no episodes of ventricular fibrillation following myocardial biopsy.
Source: The American Journal of Cardiology - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research