Bivalirudin-Based Versus Conventional Heparin Anticoagulation for Postcardiotomy Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation
The present study is a retrospective comparison of the conventional heparin-based anticoagulation protocol with a bivalirudin-based, heparin-free protocol. Endpoints of this study are blood loss, allogeneic blood product use, and costs during the ECMO procedure.