Sebastian D. Sahli, Alexander Kaserer, Julia Braun, Maximilian Halbe, Yuliya Dahlem, Muriel A. Spahn, Julian Rössler, Bernard Krüger, Francesco Maisano, Donat R. Spahn, Markus J. Wilhelm, University of Zurich, and Kaserer, Alexander
BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) therapy is increasingly used for cardiac and respiratory support postcardiotomy, refractory cardiogenic shock and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This study aims to describe in-hospital mortality of patients requiring ECLS, identify independent predictors associated with mortality and analyze changes of mortality over time. METHODS: This retrospective study includes all adult ECLS cases at the University Hospital Zurich, a designated ECLS center in Switzerland, in the period 2007 to 2019. RESULTS: ECLS therapy was required in 679 patients (median age 60 years, 27.5% female). In-hospital mortality was 55.5%. Cubic spline interpolation did not detect evidence for a change in mortality over the whole period of 13 years. In-hospital mortality significantly varied between ECLS indications: 70.7% (152/215) for postcardiotomy, 67.9% (108/159) for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 47.0% (110/234) for refractory cardiogenic shock, and 9.9% (7/71) for lung transplantation and expansive thoracic surgery (P