Low volume ECMO results study

Objectives: To report extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) experience at Princess Alexandra and Gold Coast University hospitals and compare mortality with benchmarks. Design: Case series of patients treated with ECMO. Setting: Two adult tertiary Australian intensive care units with low ECMO case volumes. Participants: Patients treated with ECMO, aged > 18 years. Main outcome measures: Patients were categorised into respiratory, cardiac, and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (eCPR) groups. Observed mortality was compared with mortality predicted using individual risk of death predictions from the Survival after Veno-arterial ECMO (SAVE) and Respiratory ECMO Survival Prediction (RESP) scores; mortality predicted when mortality predictions of the SAVE score were modified to be consistent with the validation cohort in the SAVE study (Alfred Hospital); and with mortality predicted when eCPR patients were all assigned a risk of death equal to Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Registry eCPR mortality. Results: Over 10 years, 86 patients were treated with ECMO. Eight deaths were observed in 49 patients with respiratory failure, below the 95% CI (13-24) for the deaths predicted by the RESP score (P < 0.001). Nine deaths were observed in 27 patients with cardiac failure, below the 95% CI (14-23) for the deaths predicted by the SAVE score (P < 0.001), but within the 95% CI (9-17) for the deaths predicted by the SAVE score modified to be consistent with the Alfred Hospital cohort (P > 0.05). Seven deaths were observed in the ten eCPR patients, within the 95% CI (4-10) predicted using the risk of death derived from the ELSO Registry. Conclusions: Mortality in two low volume ECMO centres was not inferior to benchmarks.