Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation: a review of recent literature on its benefits, key protocol components, and considerations for successful implementation.

The application of venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in patients unresponsive to conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has significantly increased in recent years. To date, 3 published randomized trials have investigated extracorporeal CPR (ECPR) in adults with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Although these trials reported inconsistent results, they suggest that ECPR may have a significant survival benefit over conventional CPR in selected patients only when performed with strict protocol adherence in an experienced EMS-Hospital system. Several studies suggest that identifying suitable ECPR candidates and reducing the time from cardiac arrest to ECMO initiation are key to successful outcomes. Prehospital ECPR or the rendezvous approach may allow more patients to receive ECPR within acceptable timeframes than ECPR initiation on arrival at a capable hospital. ECPR is only one part of the system of care for resuscitation of cardiac arrest victims. Optimizing the chain of survival is critical to improving outcomes of patients receiving ECPR. Further studies are needed to find the optimal strategy for the use of ECPR.