Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Is an Option for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Little is known about the possible role of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) for patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. In a prospective study, researchers compared rates of survival to hospital discharge and favorable neurological outcome in consecutive patients receiving ECPR for nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (31 patients) versus in-hospital cardiac arrest (199 patients) during a 5-year period in Taiwan. All patients were between the ages of 16 and 80 years and had bystander-witnessed cardiac arrest with resuscitation within 6 minutes. Patients who arrived at the hospital without return of spontaneous circulation and had received standard advanced cardiac life support for 10 minutes were eligible for…