Even after the introduction of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR), survival after cardiac arrest remains poor. Excess release of vasoactive cytokines may be a reason for cardiovascular instability and death after ECPR. Recently, an extracorporeal cytokine adsorption device (CytoSorb) to reduce elevated levels of circulating cytokines has been introduced.

So far, it remains unclear if this device may improve survival and cardiovascular stabilization after ECPR.

We report data from our investigator-initiated, single-center ECPR registry. We compared 23 ECPR patients treated with cytokine adsorption with a propensity-matched cohort of ECPR patients without cytokine adsorption.

We analyzed survival, lactate clearance, vasopressor need, and fluid demand in both groups and performed between-group comparisons.

Survival to discharge from intensive care unit (ICU) was 17.4% (4/23) in the cytokine adsorption group and 21.7% in the control group (5/23, P > 0.99).

In both groups, we observed a decrease of serum-lactate, need for vasopressors, and fluid demand during the first 72 hours after ECPR.

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