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Updated: Jul 30, 2026

Veno-Venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in a Mouse
Published on: October 24, 2018
Venoarterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Acute Massive Pulmonary Embolism: a Meta-Analysis and Call to
Elona Rrapo Kaso1, Jonathan A Pan1, Michael Salerno1,2,3
1Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, University of Virginia, 1215 Lee Street, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
Abstract:
Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been used to treat acute massive pulmonary embolism (PE) patients. However, the incremental benefit of ECMO to standard therapy remains unclear. Our meta-analysis objective is to compare in-hospital mortality in patients treated for acute massive PE with and without ECMO. The National Library of Medicine MEDLINE (USA), Web of Science, and PubMed databases from inception through October 2020 were searched. Screening identified 1002 published articles. Eleven eligible studies were identified, and 791 patients with acute massive PE were included, of whom 270 received ECMO and 521 did not. In-hospital mortality was not significantly different between patients treated with vs. without ECMO (OR = 1.24 [95% CI, 0.63-2.44], p = 0.54). However, these findings were limited by significant study heterogeneity. Additional research will be needed to clarify the role of ECMO in massive PE treatment. In-hospital mortality for patients with acute massive pulmonary embolism was not significantly different (OR of 1.24, p = 0.54) between those treated with and without venoarterial ECMO.
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