Outcomes from the Use of Perioperative Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Patients Undergoing Thoracic Surgery: An 8-Year Single-Center Experience

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) plays an important role in thoracic surgery. This retrospective study from a single center aimed to evaluate patient outcomes from the use of perioperative ECMO in 22 pa-tients undergoing thoracic surgery during an 8-year period. Material/Methods: Data were collected retrospectively from 22 patients who received ECMO (veno-arterial and veno-venous ECMO) as perioperative treatment during general thoracic surgery from January 2012 to October 2020. Patients re-quired ECMO due to perioperative cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) (2 cases), perioperative pulmonary em-bolism (PE) (2 cases), lung transplant (4 cases), undergoing complicated thoracic surgery (5 cases), postopera-tive acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (6 cases), and thoracic trauma (3 cases). Results: Veno-arterial ECMO was used for circulatory support in 13 cases and veno-venous ECMO was used for respira-tory support in 9 cases. The average ECMO support time was 71.6 +/- 42.4 h. Twenty patients (90.9%) were suc-cessfully decannulated and 17 (77.2%) survived to discharge. Complications included severe hemorrhage (3/22 patients, 13.6%), sepsis (3/22, 13.6%), and destruction of blood cells (1/22, 4.5%). There were no significant differences in survival rates between patients receiving pre-or postoperative ECMO (P=0.135) or between ve-no-venous ECMO (V-V ECMO) and veno-arterial ECMO (V-A ECMO) (P=0.550). Conclusions: The findings from this small retrospective study from a single center showed that perioperative ECMO improved cardiac and respiratory function in patients undergoing thoracic surgery. Optimal results require surgeons to have an understanding of the indications and ability to control the complications of ECMO.