CESAR
Conventional Ventilation or ECMO for Severe Adult Respiratory Failure
Patient / Population Intervention / Exposure Comparison Outcome
In 180 patients with severe respiratory failure, transfer to an ECMO centre improved 6-month survival without severe disability versus continued conventional care.
N
180
Design
Multicentre RCT, UK
Endpoint
Death or severe disability at 6 months
Relevance
3
Result63% vs 47% (RR 0.69; p=0.03).
Peek GJ, et al. Lancet. 2009;374(9698):1351-1363. 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61069-2
Discussion & critique
Effect partly driven by overall centre quality, not ECMO alone; launched modern ECMO programmes.