Baseline characteristics
Patient characteristics related to ECPR are summarized in table 1. Patients in the weaned group were significantly younger than those in the failed group (p = 0.03) and had a shorter CPR duration (p < 0.01). Arterial blood gas analysis showed that pH and lactate levels at pre-ECPR were no different in the two groups, but that these levels of post-ECPR and on hospital day 1 improved more in the weaned group. Etiologies are described in table 1. The most common cause of cardiac arrest was acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Revascularization with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was performed in 14 of the 18 AMI patients. Three patients received ECPR after PCI due to cardiac arrest within an hour of the procedure, and eleven AMI patients were treated by PCI after ECPR. Median time between ECMO initiation and PCI was one hour (interquartile range -0.5 – 2.0). Other etiologies included cardiac arrest from cardiac tamponade after cardiac surgery, dilated cardiomyopathy, tricyclic antidepressant intoxication, aluminum phosphide intoxication and severe aortic stenosis. Six AMI patients suffered cardiac arrest with ventricular tachycardia (VT).