[Percutaneous extracorporeal life support in acute severe hemodynamic collapses: single centre experience in 100...

Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is a circulatory assistance device that is increasingly used in adults undergoing cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) or hemodynamic collapse when conventional therapies fail.

To assess the feasibility and outcomes of 100 consecutive arteriovenous percutaneous ECLS procedures at the Grenoble University Hospital between January 2002 and September 2007.

Monocentric descriptive registry with one-year prospective follow-up.

An ECLS device was successfully used in 93% of patients. Its indication was cardiogenic shock in 50% of the cases, CPA in 38% of the cases and unsuccessful weaning of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) after cardiothoracic surgery in 12% of the cases. Direct complications of ECLS were observed in 56% of patients, the most frequent being hemorrhage at the intravenous puncture site requiring red blood cell transfusions (26%), and lower limb ischemia (19%). Weaning from ECLS was achieved in 33 patients (44% cardiogenic shocks, 13% CPAs, 50% CPB weaning failures) and 20 patients were discharged from the hospital (26% cardiogenic shocks, 10.5% CPAs and 25% CPB weaning failures). All are still living without any serious sequelae (mean follow-up period of 16.8 months).

The use of ECLS in CPA patients, especially with cardiogenic shock, is feasible with satisfactory survival rates, given the extreme severity of their initial state.