Guidelines for extracorporeal circulation

Numerous extracorporeal life support procedures are currently conducted worldwide for extracorporeal circulation (ECC) running. The contribution of the basis, indications, and side effects of ECC on the guidelines remains controversial despite extensive clinical and experimental research done over many years. Because of the lack of scientific evidence for some topics in this field, many recommendations are allowed to be based on consensus, necessitating an inevitable call for more scientific and new researches on many aspects of extracorporeal life support. Since the pathophysiology of the ECC-related systemic inflammatory response is multifactorial, the generation of inflammatory responses manifests mainly as subclinical organ dysfunctions, but severe multiorgan dysfunction can manifest associated with coagulopathy, respiratory failure, myocardial dysfunction, renal insufficiency, etc. Therefore guidelines for ECC should be open to new ideas, procedures, devices, and as well personal daily practices, and they should be revised bi-annually by high-experienced professionals and high-volume studies supported by real word data.