Although removal of neutrophils from the arterial blood by mechanical filtration has been reported to prevent or reduce the severity of myocardial stunning caused by a 15 minute coronary artery occlusion in the dog, neutrophil filtration does not protect against myocardial dysfunction following a 10-minute occlusion. Nonfilter methods to reduce neutrophil numbers or effectiveness with anti-neutrophil serum, monoclonal anti-CD11b antibodies, or the lipoxygenase inhibitor nafazatrom fail to modify myocardial dysfunction after brief ischemia, even though they effectively reduce infarct size after more prolonged ischemia. The brief durations of ischemia required to produce myocardial stunning but to avoid necrosis are insufficient to produce local activation of complement, formation of chemotactic factors, or activation or infiltration of neutrophils. Microvascular plugging with neutrophils cannot be demonstrated in stunned myocardium, and abnormalities of microvascular function can be dissociated from impaired postischemic myocardial function. Based on the weight of accumulated evidence, neutrophils appear to have no important role in the production of stunned myocardium.