No Survival Benefit to ECMO With Balloon Pump Over ECMO Alone

Researchers found no survival benefit when an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) was used in addition to veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) compared with using ECMO alone in patients with cardiogenic shock.

Additionally, there was no difference in vascular complications between the two strategies, according to a meta-analysis of four cohort studies with a total of 818 patients, which compared the outcomes in patients with cardiogenic shock using mechanical circulatory