title: Duration of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is a poor predictor of hospital survival.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is increasingly used in patients with respiratory failure. In patients without the option of lung transplantation, prognostication is challenging. We hypothesized that duration of ECMO therapy is inversely correlated with the chance of recovery and therefore hospital survival.
  
  
  METHODS
  A single-center retrospective register analysis was performed. All bridge-to-recovery venovenous ECMO patients without option for lung transplantation treated between October 2010 and September 2015 were included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 175 patients (mean age, 51.61 ± 2.11 years) were detected. Medium time on ECMO was 9.26 ± 1.91 days. Time on ECMO was not significantly shorter in survivors compared to nonsurvivors (8.23 ± 2.04 and 10.15 ± 3.07, respectively; P = .327). Rate of hospital survival and time on ECMO did not correlate (P = .103). The predictive value of ECMO duration on hospital survival was 0.503 in a receiver operating characteristic analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to our registry data, duration of ECMO therapy by itself could not predict hospital survival. Prospective studies are needed to confirm this finding.
authors: Department of Cardiology and Angiology I, Heart Center Freiburg University, Germany. Electronic address: dawid.staudacher@universitaets-herzzentrum.de.
authors: Dawid L
authors: DL
authors: Staudacher
authors: Department of Cardiology and Angiology I, Heart Center Freiburg University, Germany.
authors: Christoph
authors: C
authors: Bode
authors: Department of Cardiology and Angiology I, Heart Center Freiburg University, Germany.
authors: Tobias
authors: T
authors: Wengenmayer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015199:Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: ECMO; Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; Survival