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. 2023 Jan 5;13(1):157.
doi: 10.3390/life13010157.

ECMO Retrieval Program: What Have We Learned So Far

Ihor Krasivskyi  1 , Clara Großmann  1 , Marit Dechow  1 , Ilija Djordjevic  1 , Borko Ivanov  2 , Stephen Gerfer  1 , Walid Bennour  1 , Elmar Kuhn  1 , Anton Sabashnikov  1 , Navid Mader  1 , Kaveh Eghbalzadeh  1 , Thorsten Wahlers  1
Affiliations

ECMO Retrieval Program: What Have We Learned So Far

Ihor Krasivskyi et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is increasingly used for patients with cardiogenic shock or cardiac arrest. However, survival rates remain low. It is unclear to what extent ECMO patients benefit from the ECMO team learning curve. Therefore, we aimed to analyze our mobile ECMO program patients from the past seven years to evaluate if a learning curve benefits patients’ outcomes. We analyzed 111 patients from our databank who were supported with a VA-ECMO and brought to our hospital from January 2015 to December 2021. Patients were divided into two groups: survival (n = 70) and non-survival (n = 41). As expected, complications after ECMO implantation were more severe in the non-survivor group. The incidence of thromboembolic events (p = 0.002), hepatic failure (p < 0.001), renal failure (p = 0.002), dialysis (p = 0.002) and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS, p = 0.044) occurred significantly more often compared with the survivor group. We were able to show that despite our extensive experience in terms of ECMO retrieval program the high mortality and morbidity rates stay fairly the same over the years. This displays that we have to focus even more on patient selection and ECMO indication.

Keywords: ECMO; cardiogenic shock; mortality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Reasons for ECMO implantation comparing the two groups (survivors (n = 41) vs. non-survivors (n = 70)).
Figure 2
Figure 2
In-hospital survival (%) from 2015 till 2022 after mobile ECMO implantation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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