Myocardial infarction in consequence of a coronary artery occlusion presents a serious problem. It is the aim of any emergency revascularization to minimize the ischemia-induced damage or to salvage reversibly injured myocardium. In experiments on 8 anesthetized pigs, myocardial protection by orthograde perfusion with a high-volume cardioplegic solution was studied under controlled conditions. The left anterior descending artery (LAD) was occluded for 60 min. Then cardiopulmonary bypass was instituted and cardioplegia induced by 8 min perfusion of Bretschneider HTK solution into the aortic root. After 15 min global ischemia, the LAD was "revascularized' and 150 min reperfusion followed. Except for the early relaxation (dP/dtmin) and mean thickening velocity in the ischemic myocardium, all variables remained essentially unchanged during LAD occlusion. During the entire reperfusion, heart rate was significantly increased compared to control: 93 +/- 23 vs. 126 +/- 20/min. Left-ventricular (LV) peak pressure was significantly decreased at the end of the reperfusion, 104 +/- 33 and 77 +/- 22 mmHg, as was dP/dtmax:2155 +/- 655 vs. 1720 +/- 895 mmHg/s. Cardiac output was insignificantly decreased at the end of reperfusion, 2.6 +/- 0.6 vs. 2.4 +/- 0.5 L/min, whereas stroke-work index exhibited a significant deterioration: 1.2 +/- 0.6 vs. 0.5 +/- 0.3 mmHg.ml/kg. LV dP/dtmin was significantly impaired after ischemia and at the end of reperfusion, -1575 +/- 385 vs. -855 +/- 310 mmHg/s, while LV end-diastolic pressure exhibited only a moderate increase: 8 +/- 5 vs. 9 +/- 3 mmHg. MVO2, in turn, remained almost constant throughout the protocol for each of two methods by which it was predicted. The results show that global work, MVO2, and external efficiency were unchanged during early and late occlusion compared to control. During the entire reperfusion the myocardium was stunned, i.e. cardiac work was decreased at maintained MVO2. Thus, external efficiency was decreased. From these results we conclude that in reperfused myocardium after cardioplegic arrest, the oxygen is only inefficiently converted to develop force.