Early epinephrine therapy within the first 24 h after cannulation for venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) was associated with poor survival compared to patients with or without any inodilator therapy. Until randomized data are available, epinephrine should be avoided in patients on VA-ECMO.

A total of 231 patients were analyzed. Of these, 41.6% received no inotrope therapy within the first 24 h (survival 47.9%), 29.0% received an inodilator (survival 52.2%), and 29.0% received epinephrine (survival 25.0%).

Survival of patients with epinephrine was significantly worse compared to other patient groups when evaluating 30-day survival (p = 0.034/p = 0.005) and cumulative incidence of in-hospital death.

Analysis of a retrospective registry of all patients treated with VA-ECMO in a university hospital center between October 2010 and December 2018 for cardiogenic shock or extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (eCPR) with a focus on individual early inotropic therapy.

Read More