Recently, a series of studies have been conducted to investigate the association of the common biochemical biomarkers, such as serum lactate and creatinine, with clinical outcomes in cardiac arrest patients treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), however, the results were not consistent and the sample size of primary studies is limited. In the present study, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the associations.

Relevant studies in English databases (PubMed, ISI web of science, and Embase) and Chinese databases (Wanfang and CNKI) up to January 2018 were systematically searched. Crude ORs or HRs from the included studies were extracted and pooled to summarize the associations of lactate and creatinine with clinical outcomes including survival and neurological outcomes in ECMO treated cardiac arrest patients.

17 papers containing 903 cases were included in the present meta-analysis study. After pooling all the eligible studies, we identified the significant associations of high lactate level with poor survival (N=13, OR=1.335, 95%CI=1.167–1.527, P<0.001) and poor neurological outcome (N=2, HR=1.058, 95%CI=1.020–1.098, P=0.002) in CA patients treated with ECMO and a slight significant association of high creatinine with poor survival was also found (N=7, OR=1.010, 95%CI=1.002–1.018, P=0.015).

High serum lactate level was associated with poor survival and poor neurological outcome in CA patients treated with ECMO. Further well-designed studies with larger sample size should be conducted to confirm the results.