Temporary Circulatory Support and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Cardiogenic shock (CS) refractory to conventional therapies continues to be a challenging medical syndrome, with poor prognosis and high complication and mortality rates. The application and use of temporary mechanical circulatory support (MCS) is a component in the treatment of CS patients and should be applied early in the presentation. Crucial to the success of their application, temporary MCS devices should be chosen based on degree of patient acuity and etiology of CS. Not all temporary MCS devices deliver the same degree of hemodynamic support and range from minimal support to systemic support via veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.