Impact of Left Ventricular Venting on Acute Brain Injury in Patients With Cardiogenic Shock: An Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry Analysis

Objectives: While left ventricular (LV) venting reduces LV distension in cardiogenic shock patients on venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), it may also amplify risk of acute brain injury (ABI). We investigated the hypothesis that LV venting is associated with increased risk of ABI. We also compared ABI risk of the two most common LV venting strategies, percutaneous microaxial flow pump (mAFP) and intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP). Design: Retrospective observational cohort study. Setting: The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization registry. Patients: Adult patients on peripheral venoarterial ECMO for cardiogenic shock (2013–2024). Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: ABI was defined as hypoxic-ischemic brain injury, ischemic stroke, or intracranial hemorrhage. Secondary outcome was hospital mortality. We compared no LV venting with: 1) LV venting, 2) mAFP, and 3) IABP using multivariable logistic regression. To compare ABI risk of mAFP vs. IABP, propensity-score matching was performed. Of 13,276 patients (median age = 58.2, 69.9% male), 1,456 (11.0%) received LV venting (65.5% mAFP and 29.9% IABP), and 525 (4.0%) had ABI. After multivariable regression, LV-vented patients had increased odds of ABI (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.67; 95% CI, 1.22–2.26; p = 0.001) but no difference in mortality (aOR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.90–1.27; p = 0.45) compared with non-LV-vented patients. In the propensity-matched cohort of IABP ( n = 231) vs. mAFP ( n = 231) patients, there was no significant difference in odds of ABI (aOR, 1.35; 95% CI, 0.69–2.71; p = 0.39) or mortality (aOR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.58–1.31; p = 0.52). Conclusions: LV venting was associated with increased odds of ABI but not mortality in patients receiving peripheral venoarterial ECMO for cardiogenic shock. There was no difference in odds of ABI or mortality for IABP vs. mAFP patients.