Efficacy and safety of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been presented as a potential therapeutic option for patients with cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction (CS-MI). We aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of ECMO in CS-MI. METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizing evidence from randomized controlled trials obtained from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science until September 2023. We used the random-effects model to report dichotomous outcomes using risk ratio and continuous outcomes using mean difference with a 95% confidence interval. Finally, we implemented a trial sequential analysis to evaluate the reliability of our results. RESULTS: We included four trials with 611 patients. No significant difference was observed between ECMO and standard care groups in 30-day mortality with pooled RR of 0.96 (95% CI 0.81-1.13, p = 0.60), acute kidney injury (RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.41-1.03, p = 0.07), stroke (RR 1.16, 95% CI 0.38-3.57, p = 0.80), sepsis (RR 1.06, 95% CI 0.77-1.47, p = 0.71), pneumonia (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.58-1.68, p = 0.96), and 30-day reinfarction (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.25-3.60, p = 0.94). However, the ECMO group had higher bleeding events (RR 2.07, 95% CI 1.44-2.97, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: ECMO did not improve clinical outcomes compared to the standard of care in patients with CS-MI but increased the bleeding risk.