Early recognition of CPA is the key to its successful management. For resuscitation to be managed successfully, effective forward blood flow must be established at the onset of the arrest. In our clinical experience, we have found that the Doppler unit allows us to assess the effectiveness of cerebral perfusion better than any other method of blood pressure evaluation. If, by Doppler monitoring results, cerebral perfusion is found to be poor, blood flow may be mechanically improved by instituting high dose epinephrine therapy and interposed abdominal counter-pressure techniques. There is an understandable reluctance on the part of many veterinarians to enter the chest in the course of CPR. Unfortunately, this delay in performing internal compressions is often the reason that open-chest CPR is deemed ineffective by so many practitioners. If external chest CPR is not effective within 1 to 2 min (maximum) of its initiation, an emergency thoracotomy and direct cardiac massage should be performed. We know that perfusion pressure increases three to five times with open versus closed-chest CPR. This improvement in perfusion with direct cardiac massage is due, in part, to the absence of venous pressure elevations created during external chest compression. It follows that better coronary and cerebral blood flow will result in better resuscitation when direct cardiac massage is performed early. The "bottom line" in CPR is successful resuscitation of the patient with resultant good neurologic function. It is hoped that through the use of these techniques and new cytoprotective drugs, the survival rate will rise.