title: ECMO after prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation as a successful bridge to immediate cardiac retransplant in a 6-year-old girl.
abstract: Heart failure, life-threatening arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death are common complications in patients with advanced chronic cardiac allograft rejection--the major limiting factor of long-term survival after heart transplant. In patients with sustained cardiorespiratory arrest refractory to cardiopulmonary resuscitation extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy is a therapeutic option. We report the case of a 6-year-old girl with severe chronic allograft vasculopathy who was successfully bridged to cardiac retransplant through extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy after prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Our case demonstrates extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as a rescuing therapeutic option in high-risk, bridge-to-transplant patients, with cardiac arrest. Even after prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation, there were no neurologic events, and our patient recovered without any neurologic damage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital Grosshadern, Munich, Germany. Amir.Bigdeli@gmx.de
authors.forename: Amir Khosrow
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Bigdeli
authors.forename: Marcus-André
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Deutsch
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beiras-Fernandez
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Michel
authors.forename: Ingo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kaczmarek
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sodian
mesh_terms: D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation; D002648:Child; D015199:Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D012086:Reoperation; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous