We reported a patient who suffered severe amnesia caused by hypoxic cerebral anoxia after cardiogenic shock. He had a severe disturbance of orientation and recent memory derived from anterograde amnesia, but did not have disturbance of remote memory, immediate span or intelligence. Magnetic resonance imaging performed revealed mild medial temporal (hippocampal and parahippocampal) atrophy and lesions in the bilateral lentiform nuclei, particularly in the pallidum.  Single photon emission computed tomography showed decreased perfusion in regions of the brain including the hippocampus, lentiform and fronto-parietal cortex. We concluded that this amnesia was resulted from an impairment of Papez’s memory circuit caused by bilateral hippocampal damages, and the frontal lobe dysfunctions could be related to structural and physio-logical disturbance in the systems linking to the frontal associative cortex and the basal ganglia.