Clinical Outcomes in Pediatric Patients Hospitalized with Fulminant Myocarditis Requiring Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: A Meta-analysis

We conducted a meta-analysis to provide the survival rates for pediatric patients hospitalized with fulminant myocarditis requiring ECMO. The literature search was conducted using Embase, PubMed, MEDLINE and Elsevier for studies published before April 1, 2016. We focus on survival rates for pediatric patients hospitalized with fulminant myocarditis requiring ECMO, and studies that reported only on adult patients were excluded. Summary of the survival rates was obtained using fixed-effect or random-effect meta-analysis which determined by I ². Six studies were included in the analysis, encompassing 172 patients. The minimum and maximum reported rates of survival to hospital discharge were 53.8 and 83.3%, respectively. The cumulative rate was 107/172. The calculated Cochran Q value was 3.73, which was not significant for heterogeneity (P = 0.588). The I ² value was 0%. The pooled estimate rate was 62.9% with a 95% confidence interval of 55.3–69.8%. In pediatric patients with cardiac failure who have failed conventional therapies in FM, venoarterial ECMO should be considered. In total, 62.9% of patients with FM and either cardiogenic shock and/or cardiac arrest survived to hospital discharge with ECMO.