Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as a bridge for enabling surgery in a patient under cardiogenic shock due to acute mitral prosthesis dysfunction.

A 52-year-old male patient, who underwent mitral replacement with a mechanical prosthesis as a child, sustained a cardiac arrest which was successfully resuscitated. Further investigation showed prosthesis malfunction with significant regurgitation in the context of multi-organ failure. In such a life-threatening condition, veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was considered as a rescue procedure to achieve optimisation of clinical status to allow definitive surgical treatment. An unusual complete fracture of the prosthesis was subsequently identified as the cause of acute dysfunction.