74: Do 70 year old’s deserve ECPR? A Deep Dive into the Economics of ECPR

Have you ever pondered whether all the work over ECPR was worth it?  Even if you did save a few patients, does this really make sense from a societal standpoint?  Am I giving up my life on a project where my efforts could be better elsewhere?  Then this episode is for you (and me).  This month I talk with Melissa Barnes and Ryan Coute about the economics of cardiac arrest and specifically ECPR.  Ryan has just published a great paper in Resuscitation on the costs on OHCA.  We will talk with Ryan and Melissa Barnes, ECMO manager at Sharp Memorial Hospital about benefits and costs to society of OHCA and ECMO.  I learned several pearls from Ryan's paper as well as a paper by Grosse that Ryan references.  Below are the links to both papers with a couple graphs to try to wrap your head around.