Is twenty-eight-day mortality in critically ill surgical patients an imprecise temporal end-point measure for in-hospital mortality?
The 28-day time period used to assess efficacy of therapeutic interventions and to define mortality in the context of quality audits should be questioned. If these findings are validated in other centers another temporal end point for in-hospital mortality should be considered.
According to our registry data, duration of ECMO therapy by itself could not predict hospital survival. Prospective studies are needed to confirm this finding.