Patient population, Study Design and Outcome Measures
The PC-ECMO registry is a multicenter observational study enrolling
patients undergoing VA-ECMO following adult cardiac surgery at 19
centers from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy,
Saudi Araba, Sweden, and the United Kingdom from January 2010 to March
2018. The present study is registered in Clinicaltrials.gov (Identifier:
NCT03508505), and its detailed protocol with definition criteria have
been previously published [5]. Briefly, patients aged ≥18 years who
required VA-ECMO for PCS following cardiac surgery were included.
Exclusion criteria encompassed patients with preoperative VA-ECMO,
patients with descending thoracic aorta repair, or those receiving
VA-ECMO after implantation of ventricular assist device or heart
transplantation. Patients without baseline data on arterial lactate
level at the start of VA-ECMO were also excluded from the present
analysis because of its impact on patient outcome. The primary end-point
was in-hospital mortality. The study complies with the Strengthening the
Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology reporting
requirements for observational studies (Supplemental Table 1) [10].