Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: first results and outcomes of a newly established ECPR program in a large population area.

Establishing ECPR programs in large population areas offers the option to improve survival rates for OHCA patients. Stringent compliance of institutional criteria (mainly age, witnessed arrest, and time of pre-hospital resuscitation) and providing ECPR to strictly selected patients seems to be a vital factor for such programs' success. Pre-clinical settings and therapeutic measures must be adjusted in this regard to improve outcomes for this highly demanding patient cohort.