The Relation Between Obesity and Mortality in Postcardiotomy Venoarterial Membrane Oxygenation

BACKGROUND: Obesity is an important health problem in cardiac surgery and among patients requiring postcardiotomy venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (V-A ECMO). Still, whether these patients are at risk for unfavorable outcomes after postcardiotomy V-A ECMO remains unclear. The current study evaluated the association between body mass index (BMI) and in-hospital outcomes in this setting.

METHODS: The Post-cardiotomy Extracorporeal Life Support (PELS-1) study is an international, multicenter study. Patients requiring postcardiotomy V-A ECMO in 36 centers from 16 countries between 2000 and 2020 were included. Patients were divided in 6 BMI categories (underweight, normal weight, overweight, class I, class II, and class III obesity) according to international recommendations. Primary outcome was in-hospital mortality, and secondary outcomes included major adverse events. Mixed logistic regression models were applied to evaluate associations between BMI and mortality.

RESULTS: The study cohort included 2046 patients (median age, 65 years; 838 women [41.0%]). In-hospital mortality was 60.3%, without statistically significant differences among BMI classes for in-hospital mortality (P = .225) or major adverse events (P = .126). The crude association between BMI and in-hospital mortality was not statistically significant after adjustment for comorbidities and intraoperative variables (class I: odds ratio [OR], 1.21; 95% CI, 0.88-1.65; class II: OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 0.86-2.45; class III: OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 0.62-3.33), which was confirmed in multiple sensitivity analyses.

CONCLUSIONS: BMI is not associated to in-hospital outcomes after adjustment for confounders in patients undergoing postcardiotomy V-A ECMO. Therefore, BMI itself should not be incorporated in the risk stratification for postcardiotomy V-A ECMO.