Ethical aspects, study population
Coronary artery bypass
PULMONARY EMBOLISM, BLOOD, HEMATOLOGIC DISEASE
The present study was performed at the University Hospital Bergmannsheil Bochum (which is a registered ECMO center). Retrospectively, the data of 30 patients of our intensive care unit were examined regarding NRBC levels. Blood samples were taken daily at the same point of time in patients with extracorporeal support procedures. 30-day-mortality after decannulation was investigated. Most patients had undergone cardiac surgery (Coronary artery bypass grafting, Valve or Aortic surgery) except for two patients who were treated conservatively for pulmonary embolism. Exclusion criteria were age under 18 years, ECMO duration less than 24 h and patients with history of hematologic disease.After obtaining permission from the local ethics committee (No.: 20–706430), the study was registered in the German clinical Trial register (German Clinical Trials Register-No: DRKS00023626, retrospectively registered, December 20th 2020, Data were collected in the period from July 2019 to September 2020 from the in-house patient data management system (Medico, Cerner, Germany).All patients were treated with the following ECMO systems: Cardiohelp, Rotaflow (Getinge Group) and Novalung (Fresenius Medical Care). Cannulation strategies were chosen regarding the physicians’ preference and the clinical setting such as femoral or axillary arterial and femoral or internal jugular venous cannulation.