Extracorporeal CPR in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest — Still on Life Support?

Despite many advances in the treatment of heart disease over the past four decades, up to one-third of all patients with acute manifestations of heart disease do not reach the hospital after cardiac arrest. Only 8 to 10% of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survive; the event is responsible for up to 570,000 deaths annually in North America and Europe. The patients who are most likely to survive cardiac arrest are those who present with ventricular fibrillation that is responsive to defibrillation. Yet even among patients with a shockable rhythm, up to half will have ventricular fibrillation.