Abstract
BACKGROUND: Left ventricular (LV) unloading is a crucial intervention to decrease the harmful consequences of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) on hemodynamic status in cardiogenic shock (CS) patients. However, a lingering question preoccupies experts: Should we intervene early or wait until clinical deterioration caused by increasing afterload is detected? METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizing studies, which were retrieved by systematically searching PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Cochrane through December 2023. We used R V. 4.3 to pool dichotomous data using risk ratio (RR) and continuous data using mean difference (MD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). PROSPERO ID: CRD42024501643. RESULTS: Eight studies with 2.117 patients were included. Early/prophylactic LV unloading was associated with a lower incidence of all-cause mortality [RR: 0.87 with 95% CI (0.79, 0.95), p < 0.01]. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding cardiac mortality [RR: 1.01 with 95% CI (0.68, 1.48), p = 0.98], non-cardiac mortality [RR: 0.86 with 95% CI (0.46, 1.62), p = 0.64], and in-hospital mortality [RR: 0.95 with 95% CI (0.86, 1.05), p = 0.30]. There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding ECMO weaning, myocardial recovery, ECMO duration, and length of hospitalization. CONCLUSION: Early/prophylactic LV unloading during ECMO for CS patients was associated with a decreased incidence of all-cause mortality and sepsis or infection, with no effect on ECMO weaning, myocardial recovery, ECMO duration, and hospital length of stay.