Base excess and lactate as prognostic indicators for patients treated by extra corporeal life support after out hospital cardiac arrest due to acute coronary syndrome.

Objective: To examine whether values of arterial base excess or lactate taken 3 h after starting ECLS indicate poor prognosis and if this can be used as a screening tool to follow Extra Corporeal Life Support after Out Hospital Cardiac Arrest due to acute coronary syndrome.

Design: Single Centre retrospective observational study.

Setting: University teaching hospital general adult intensive care unit.

Safety and feasibility of prehospital extra corporeal life support implementation by non-surgeons for out-of-hospital refractory cardiac arrest.

Background: Extra corporeal life support (ECLS) has been recently introduced in the treatment of refractory cardiac arrest (CA). Several studies have assessed the use of ECLS in refractory CA once the patients reach hospital. The time between CA and the implementation of ECLS is a major prognostic factor for survival.