The Impact of Hospital-Level Median Door-to-Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Time on the Prognosis of Patients With Refractory Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of hospital-level median door-to-extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) time on survival and neurologic outcomes in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) requiring ECPR.

Design: Secondary analysis of the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine OHCA registry, a nationwide Japanese database of OHCA patients.

Setting: Fifty-three hospitals across Japan.

Patients: Adult patients who underwent ECPR between 2014 and 2021 were included. Hospitals were categorized into "rapid" or "delayed" groups based on their median door-to-ECPR times.

Interventions: None.

Measurements and main results: The primary outcome was 30-day survival. Secondary outcomes included 30-day and 90-day survival with favorable neurologic outcomes. Propensity score weighting was applied to adjust for confounders. In total, 2136 patients treated at 53 hospitals were included. Hospitals with shorter median door-to-ECPR times had higher 30-day survival rates (odds ratio [OR], 1.36; 95% CI, 1.21-1.53). Neurologic outcomes were better in the rapid hospital group at both 30 days (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.24-1.73) and 90 days (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.25-1.73) follow-ups.

Conclusions: Hospital-level median door-to-ECPR time is a crucial predictor of survival and neurologic outcomes in OHCA patients requiring ECPR. Shorter door-to-ECPR times should be considered a key quality metric for ECPR processes.