EDECMO 102: ECPR Patient’s Brains are DIFFERENT!

We need a major change in the way we think about the brains of ECPR patients. We have been duped into thinking that they are the same as regular resuscitation patients, and the answer is that they are not. On EDECMO 102, we learn about this idea from two wonderful people: Ingrid Magnet and Michael Poppe. In addition to the inspirational ECPR program they have created in Vienna, they have published a paper showing just how different these two groups of patients are. They show that ECPR patients improve their neurologic function tremendously over the six months following their event. This really changes the way we need to think about these patients and how we discuss options with their families in the hospital.