Risk factors for mortality in patients with COVID-19 needing extracorporeal respiratory support

Series describing the evolution of patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to COVID-19 and supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) during the first wave of the pandemic have reported mortalities ranging from 30 to 60% [1, 2]. More recent publications have demonstrated a trend towards a higher mortality in COVID-19 patients receiving support in later periods of the pandemic, even though the overall mortality of the disease seems lower [3, 4]. The reasons for this difference are not clear. Statistical analysis was carried out in the Statistics and Bioinformatics Unit (UEB) Vall d'Hebron Hospital Research Institute (VHIR). The following practitioners provided care for the study patients: