Artificial organs
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Observational Study
Venovenous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation With Prophylactic Subcutaneous Anticoagulation Only: An Observational Study in More Than 60 Patients.
Extracorporeal lung support and therapeutic anticoagulation are dogmatically linked for most clinicians in fear of clotting of the extracorporeal circuit. In the last decade, however, we have learned that bleeding complications in the course of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy are common and not occasionally limiting or fatal. Even though international guidelines lowered the PTT-target values, ECMO therapy without anticoagulation has only been reported sporadically in case reports heretofore. ⋯ It was not associated with an increased rate of system exchanges compared to regimes with therapeutic anticoagulation in registry data. It provides the potential to relevantly decrease the incidence of severe bleeding events and blood transfusion requirements. The apodictic adherence to anticoagulation in therapeutic dosage should be critically scrutinized in every patient.
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Patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) usually have high mortality rate and poor outcome. Age, Creatinine, and Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (ACEF) score is an easy-calculating score and provides good performance on mortality prediction in patients undergoing cardiac operations or percutaneous coronary intervention, but it has not been applied to patients on ECMO before. In this study, we aimed to use ACEF score obtained within 1 week of ECMO support for in-hospital mortality prediction in patients on ECMO due to severe myocardial failure. ⋯ Using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), the post-ECMO ACEF score indicated a good discriminative power (AUROC 0.801 ± 0.042). Finally, cumulative survival rates at 6-month follow-up differed significantly (P < 0.001) for an ACEF score ≤ 2.22 versus those with an ACEF score > 2.22. After ECMO treatment due to severe myocardial failure, post-ECMO ACEF score provides an easy-calculating method with a reproducible evaluation tool with excellent prognostic abilities in these patients.
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Observational Study
Impact of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange on Hemodynamic Parameters in Medical Intensive Care Unit Patients: An Observational Study.
Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is an extracorporeal treatment with reported beneficial as well as detrimental effects on circulation. However, there is a lack of data using advanced hemodynamic monitoring during TPE. Therefore, we investigated the effects of TPE on hemodynamic parameters derived from transpulmonary thermodilution (TPTD) as well as the risk for transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI). ⋯ Finally, TPE application did not significantly alter the pulmonary hydration and permeability parameters, extravascular lung water index (EVLWI) and pulmonary vascular permeability index. Vasopressor dose was not statistically significantly altered. Considering increases in SVI, CI, GEF, and CPI and stable values for GEDVI, EVLWI, and dPmax, our data do not give any hint for hemodynamic impairment or TRALI.