Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is an extracorporeal technique of providing prolonged cardiac and respiratory support that is used in patients with life-threatening forms of heart or lung failure. There are two basic forms of ECMO support: venous-venous (V-V) and venous-arterial (V-A) ECMO. (1, 2)

This paper presents experience with the use of veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA ECMO). Since 2017, peripheral VA ECMO support has been applied in 16 patients (14 men and 2 women). The most common indication for application is cardiogenic shock (62.5%). The average time period spent on the VA ECMO is 64 hours. Of the reported complications, the most common is bleeding (mostly at the canulation site) which is present in 56.2% of cases. Of the total number of patients, 13 (81.3%) were successfully separated from ECMO support, and 9 (56.3%) survived untill the discharge or untill the transfer to another institution.

The application of the VA ECMO in the cardiology intensive care unit has greatly improved the chances of survival of the most critical patients.