Making sense of the costs of life and death interventions. Issue 4 (1st October 2021) - Amin, Amit P.
Key Points: Acute myocardial infarction with cardiogenic shock is a costly condition associated with poor clinical outcomes. This analysis used Medicare cost data for selected patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock treated with the percutaneous left ventricular assist device (pVAD) or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and found that the pVAD was associated with lower costs and better outcomes. Patients treated with ECMO tend to have more severe shock than those treated with pVAD, and unmeasured confounders make any comparison challenging to interpret.