The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Adult: Mechanical Circulatory SupportAccess site complications of postcardiotomy extracorporeal life support
Graphical abstract
The graphical abstract shows from top to bottom the aim of the present study (section 1), the definition of the study cohort and end points (section 2), as well as the main results and conclusion of the study (sections 3 and 4). Although no difference in survival between patients with femoral (fem) and axillary (ax) arterial extracorporeal life support (ECLS) cannulation was observed, the rate of stroke and cannulation site change for bleeding was significantly higher in the axillary group, whereas the incidence of limb ischemia and cannulation site wound healing disorders was significantly higher in the femoral group. The distribution of stroke localization in 32 patients with stroke with a modified ranking scale (MRS) score ≥4 is shown. PC-ECLS, Postcardiotomy extracorporeal life support.