Weaning of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation using continuous hemodynamic transesophageal echocardiography

The authors studied outcomes of using a standard algorithm for weaning venoarterial ECMO using continuous transesophageal echo that employed a miniature probe.  6 of 21 pts had RV and LV recovery, 7 had nonrecoverable LV and RV function, and 8 had RV recovery without LV recovery and underwent LVAD.  RV function was maintained in the latter 8 pts.  The positive predictive value for ventricular recovery was 100% using echo monitoring.