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Acute Brain Injury in Postcardiotomy Shock Treated With Venoarterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation
Christopher Wilcox1, Eric Etchill2, Katherine Giuliano2
1Department of Neurosciences, Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.
Objective:
Acute brain injury (ABI) is common in venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO). One of the most common indications for use of VA-ECMO is postcardiotomy shock (PCS). The authors aimed to characterize the prevalence of ABI and its association with outcomes in this population.
Design:
prospective observational.
Setting:
Single-center tertiary care university hospital.
Participants:
Fifty-two consecutive patients treated for PCS with VA-ECMO from November 2017 to March 2020.
Interventions:
None.
Measurements And Main Results:
The median age of patients was 64 (interquartile range 44-84), 62% were male. Of 52 PCS patients treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, 38% (n = 20) experienced acute brain injury. Ischemic stroke was the most common (n = 13, 25%). Patients with central versus peripheral cannulation experienced more ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes (8% v 38%, p = 0.04). Patients with intracardiac thrombus experienced more brain injury (n = 4, 8% p = 0.02). The in-hospital mortality in patients with brain injury was 90% (n = 18/20) compared to 78% (n = 25/32) in patients without brain injury.
Conclusions:
ABI is common in postcardiotomy VA-ECMO and associated with worse outcome. Patients with central recanalization experienced the majority of acute strokes. Intracardiac thrombus was significantly associated with acute brain injury.
