ECMO May Have a Role in Cardiac Arrest Management — Just Not Yet

Researchers compared survival outcomes for adults with in-hospital (emergency department) witnessed cardiac arrest secondary to acute myocardial infarction who received either advanced cardiac life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) alone (standard care; 23 patients) or standard care plus extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO; 43 patients) at a single academic emergency department in Taiwan from 2006 to 2010. All patients underwent at least 10 minutes of CPR without return of spontaneous circulation prior to initiation of ECMO. The decision to initiate ECMO was independently determined by the cardiovascular surgeon.

Patients who received ECMO were younger than those who received standard care only (mean age, 61 vs. 70 years)…