Characteristics of patients requiring tracheostomy following extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Aim: This study aimed to describe the characteristics of patients requiring tracheostomy following extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) using real-world data from a multicenter registry. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of the SAVE-J II study, a retrospective multicenter registry study in Japan. Patients with OHCA aged >18 years who underwent ECPR between January 2013 and December 2018 were included. Participants were classified into the tracheostomy and non-tracheostomy groups, with the tracheostomy group further categorized into early (<10 days) and late (>10 days) subgroups. Survival and favorable neurological outcome at hospital discharge were the primary outcomes. Results: Overall, this study included 1,910 patients with a median age of 61 (interquartile range [IQR], 49-69) years, of whom 1,610 (82.6%) were male. Of the participants, 276 (14.5%) underwent tracheostomy, with 224 (81.2%) and 44 (15.9%) surviving to discharge and achieving favorable neurological outcomes at hospital discharge, respectively. The median duration to tracheostomy was 10 (IQR, 8-14) days, with 98% of tracheostomies performed following extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) weaning. The early tracheostomy group accounted for 145 patients (54.7%). The early and late tracheostomy subgroups showed no significant differences in survival or favorable neurological outcomes at Conclusions: Following ECPR, 14.5% of the patients underwent tracheostomy, with the majority performed following ECMO weaning. Although the survival rate at discharge among these patients was 81.2%, only 15.9% exhibited favorable neurological outcomes. To explore the long-term outcomes of patients treated with ECPR for OHCA, future studies are needed.