eCPR Combined With Therapeutic Hypothermia Could Improve Survival and Neurologic Outcomes for Patients With Cardiac Arrest: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation with CPR (eCPR) or therapeutic hypothermia (TH) seems to be a very effective CPR strategy to save patients with cardiac arrest (CA). Furthermore, the subsequent post-CA neurologic outcomes have become the focus. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find a way to improve survival and neurologic outcomes for CA. Objective: We conducted this meta-analysis to find a more suitable CPR strategy for patients with CA. Method: We searched four online databases (PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, and Web of Science). From an initial 1,436 articles, 23 studies were eligible into this meta-analysis, including a total of 2,035 patients. Results: eCPR combined with TH significantly improved the short-term (at discharge or 28 days) survival [OR = 2.27, 95% CIs (1.60–3.23), p < 0.00001] and neurologic outcomes [OR = 2.60, 95% CIs (1.92–3.52), p < 0.00001). At 3 months of follow-up, the results of survival [OR = 3.36, 95% CIs (1.65–6.85), p < 0.0008] and favorable neurologic outcomes [OR = 3.02, 95% CIs (1.38–6.63), p < 0.006] were the same as above. Furthermore, there was no difference in any bleeding needed intervention [OR = 1.33, 95% CIs (0.09–1.96), p = 0.16] between two groups. Conclusions: From this meta-analysis, we found that eCPR combined with TH might be a more suitable CPR strategy for patients with CA in improving survival and neurologic outcomes, and eCPR with TH did not increase the risk of bleeding. Furthermore, single-arm meta-analyses showed a plausible way of temperature and occasion of TH.