Is it possible to predict outcome in cardiac ECMO? Analysis of preoperative risk factors.

Background: Serious heart failure may be treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) when other treatment fails. The aim of the present study was to analyse preoperative risk factors of early mortality in patients treated with veno-arterial (VA)-ECMO.

Methods: We studied a total of 18 possible risk factors in 80 patients with severe cardiac insufficiency treated with VA-ECMO.

[Treatment of cardiac failure with an intra-aortic balloon pump].

Background: Cardiogenic shock is associated with high mortality. This retrospective study examined the effect of an intra aortic balloon pump (IABP) in patients with decompensated heart failure and hypotension, with or without cardiogenic shock.

Material And Methods: 94 patients were treated with IABP from January 1998 to December 2002, at the Department of Cardiology, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.