Expanded extracorporeal membrane oxygenation bridge to heart and lung transplant candidate selection does not impact outcomes compared to traditional candidate selection criteria

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is used as a bridge to transplant (ECMO-BTT) in selected patients. The objective of this study was to determine whether 1-year post-transplant and post-ECMO survival are impacted by traditional compared to expanded selection criteria. We performed a retrospective study of patients >17 years who received ECMO as bridge to transplant (BTT) or bridge to transplant decision for lung or combined heart and lung transplantation at the Mayo Clinic Florida and Rochester. Institutional protocol excludes patients >55 years, maintained on steroids, unable to participate in physical therapy, with body mass index >30 or <18.5 kg/m², non-pulmonary end-organ dysfunction, or unmanageable infections from ECMO-BTT. For this study, adherence to this protocol was considered traditional whereas exceptions to the protocol were considered expanded selection criteria. A total of 45 patients received ECMO as bridge therapy. Out of those 29 patients (64%) received ECMO as bridge to transplant and 16 patients (36%) as bridge to transplant decision. The traditional criteria cohort consisted of 15 (33%) patients and expanded criteria cohort consisted of 30 (67%) patients. In the traditional cohort, 9 (60%) of 15 patients were successfully transplanted compared to 16 (53%) of 30 patients in the expanded criteria cohort. No difference in being delisted or dying on the waitlist (OR: 0.58, CI: 0.13–2.58), surviving to 1-year post-transplant (OR: 0.53, CI: 0.03–9.71) or 1-year post-ECMO (OR: 0.77, CI: 0.0.23–2.56) was observed between the traditional criteria and expanded criteria cohorts. At our institution, we did not see differences in odds of 1-year post-transplant and post-ECMO survival between those who met traditional criteria compared to those who did not. Multicenter, prospective studies are needed to evaluate the impact of ECMO-BTT selection criteria.