Does bivalirudin improve hospital mortality and safety compared to heparin for maintenance systemic anticoagulation during adult and pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation?
Bivalirudin may be a safe and effective alternative to heparin for systemic anticoagulation during ECMO, potentially improving hospital mortality in adult patients.
When compared with heparin-based systemic anticoagulation, bivalirudin demonstrated feasibility and safety as established by the absence of increases in identifiable adverse outcomes while manifesting substantial improvements in hospital mortality in adult patients. Further studies are necessary to corroborate these findings and further elucidate the role of bivalirudin during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support.
Seelhammer et al. (Mon,) studied this question.