Acute cardiac care & resuscitationSecondary analysis
Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) eligible refractory out of hospital cardiac arrests – A post-hoc analysis of the EVIDENCE randomised controlled trial and Registry
- pre-specified, post-hoc analysis
- randomised controlled trial (RCT) - EVIDENCE and the contemporaneous EVIDENCE Registry (non-randomised data)
Authors' conclusion
Only a small percentage of OHCA patients were considered eligible for ECPR, predominantly due to challenges in accessing ECPR therapy. ECPR-eligible patients, not treated with ECPR, have very poor survival outcomes.
Study context
- Population
- Refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients in the EVIDENCE RCT and RegistryOHCA patients in the combined RCT and Registry
- Participants
- 1,497 participants
- Comparison
- truly eligible hospital-based ECPR patient vs Potential ECPR patients
- truly eligible hospital-based ECPR patientn = Thirty-eight
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
Truly eligible for hospital-based ECPR
Thirty-eight of 1497 OHCA patients
3%
Further findings
Main reasons for exclusion of potential ECPR patients
- arrival to hospital >1-h post-arrest, arrival to a non-ECPR-capable centre, and/or arrival outside of ECPR-capable hours
Potential ECPR candidates
- potential hospital-based ECPR candidates: Seventy-nine
- 5%
- potential pre-hospital ECPR candidates: 350
- 23%
Survival to hospital discharge of potential ECPR patients
- Survival to hospital discharge of potential ECPR patients
- 5%
Original publication
ECPR eligible refractory out of hospital cardiac arrests – A post-hoc analysis of the EVIDENCE randomised controlled trial and Registry. Resuscitation. Published 29 January 2026. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2026.110996
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it