Current animal models of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A scoping review

Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation in 2023

“…Animal ECPR studies are rare. A scoping review published 2023 by Ijuin and coauthors identified only 37 animal studies [ 86 ] in the context of ECPR. Over 90% of studies use a pig model for ECPR [ 87 – 95 ].…”

“…Over 90% of studies use a pig model for ECPR [ 87 – 95 ]. Ventricular fibrillation is induced by electrostimulation in over 70% of studies followed by a normothermic no-flow period of a median of 10 min [ 86 ]. Few studies use longer no-flow durations to up to 20 min [ 90 , 91 ].…”

“…Few studies use longer no-flow durations to up to 20 min [ 90 , 91 ]. Only half of the animals are resuscitated before ECMO support [ 86 ]. These facts highlight the fundamental differences between the available animal model (young healthy animals with induced ventricular fibrillation) and the human ECPR reality (where patients are old, have a persistent cause of collapse, are resuscitated immediately after collapse and often cooled as soon as available [ 29 , 96 , 97 ]).…”

“…Due to the long no-flow durations, those animals would not be considered candidates for ECPR according to current guidelines [ 11 , 37 ]. A further problem with currently available animal data is that neurological outcome is rarely used as primary outcome [ 86 , 93 ] opposed to human studies [ 12 , 29 , 30 ]. These facts need to be considered when bringing encouraging results from bench [ 87 ] to bedside.…”