Experience of ECMO in primary graft dysfunction after orthotopic heart transplantation.

Background: Primary graft dysfunction is the main cause of early mortality after heart transplantation. Mechanical circulatory support has been used to treat this syndrome.

Objective: Describe the experience with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to treat post-transplant primary cardiac graft dysfunction.

Methods: Between January 2007 and December 2013, a total of 71 orthotopic heart transplantations were performed in patients with advanced heart failure. Eleven (15.5%) of these patients who presented primary graft dysfunction constituted the population of this study. Primary graft dysfunction manifested in our population as failure to wean from cardiopulmonary bypass in six (54.5%) patients, severe hemodynamic instability in the immediate postoperative period with severe cardiac dysfunction in three (27.3%), and cardiac arrest (18.2%). The average ischemia time was 151 ± 82 minutes. Once the diagnosis of primary graft dysfunction was established, we installed a mechanical circulatory support to stabilize the severe hemodynamic condition of the patients and followed their progression longitudinally.

Results: The average duration of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support was 76 ± 47.4 hours (range 32 to 144 hours). Weaning with cardiac recovery was successful in nine (81.8%) patients. However, two patients who presented cardiac recovery did not survive to hospital discharge.

Conclusion: Mechanical circulatory support with central extracorporeal membrane oxygenation promoted cardiac recovery within a few days in most patients.