Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Stanford Type A Aortic Dissection

The aim of this study was to summarize the clinical experience of postoperative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support in Stanford type A aortic dissection (STAAD) patients.We retrospectively reviewed 246 consecutive acute STAAD patients undergoing operations at our institution from January 2012 to December 2016. Postoperative ECMO was used in 7 patients. There were 5 males and 2 females with a mean age of 43.1 ± 9.3 years. All 7 patients with acute STAAD underwent ascending aorta replacement and total arch repair with a self-designed stent graft (Micropart Corp, Shanghai, China). Concomitant procedures were aortic root replacement in 1 patient and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in 2 patients. All patients received veno-arterial ECMO through the femoral artery and vein. Five patients were extubated before being removed from ECMO. The mean ECMO supporting time was 244.5 ± 57.8 hours. All 7 patients were successfully weaned from ECMO support, and 6 (85.7%) patients survived to discharge. The average hospital time was 26.3 ± 8.8 days. One patient died of cardiac arrest after being weaned from ECMO. Two patients underwent reoperation for bleeding and 1 patient showed transient delirium. The remaining patients all survived during a median follow-up of 19 months.ECMO provides a good temporary cardiopulmonary support in STAAD patients with refractory cardiogenic shock after surgery for aortic dissection. The early use of ECMO and preventing its complications actively can improve the patient survival rate.