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. 2021 Sep 19;16(1):264.
doi: 10.1186/s13019-021-01638-0.

ECMO after cardiac surgery: a single center study on survival and optimizing outcomes

Jennifer M Brewer  1 , Anthony Tran  2 , Jielin Yu  2 , M Irfan Ali  2 , Constantine M Poulos  2 , Jonathan Gates  3 , Jason Gluck  4 , David Underhill  5
Affiliations

ECMO after cardiac surgery: a single center study on survival and optimizing outcomes

Jennifer M Brewer et al. J Cardiothorac Surg. .

Abstract

Background: The study purpose is to examine survival prognostic and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) application outcomes at our tertiary care center.

Methods: This is a retrospective analysis, January 2014 to September 2019. We analyzed 60 patients who underwent cardiac surgery and required peri-operative ECMO. All inpatients with demographic and intervention data was examined. 52 patients (86.6%) had refractory cardiogenic shock, 7 patients (11.6%) had pulmonary insufficiency, and 1 patient (1.6%) had hemorrhagic shock, all patients required either venous-arterial (VA) (n = 53, 88.3%), venous-venous (VV) (n = 5, 8.3%) or venous-arterial-venous (VAV) (n = 2, 3.3%) ECMO for hemodynamic support. ECMO parameters were analyzed and common postoperative complications were examined in the setting of survival with comorbidities.

Results: In-hospital mortality was 60.7% (n = 37). Patients who survived were younger (52 ± 3.3 vs 66 ± 1.5, p < 0.001) with longer hospital stays (35 ± 4.0 vs 20 ± 1.5, p < 0.03). Survivors required fewer blood products (13 ± 2.3 vs 25 ± 2.3, p = 0.02) with a net negative fluid balance (- 3.5 ± 1.6 vs 3.4 ± 1.6, p = 0.01). Cardiac re-operations worsened survival.

Conclusion: ECMO is a viable rescue strategy for cardiac surgery patients with a 40% survival to discharge rate. Careful attention to volume management and blood transfusion are important markers for potential survival.

Keywords: Cardiac surgery; Cardiac transplantation; Cardio-thoracic surgery; Critical care; ECMO; LVAD.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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