Abstract Background While ECMO is a life-saving intervention for patients with severe respiratory or cardiac failure, the impact of obesity on its efficacy and associated risks remains unclear. Purpose We aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing whether obese individuals undergoing ECMO face higher mortality and morbidity risks compared to their non-obese counterparts. Methods PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane were searched in December 2023 for studies comparing the outcomes between obese versus non-obese patients undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. We computed mean differences (MD) for continuous outcomes and odds ratios (OR) for binary outcomes, with 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs). Heterogeneity was assessed using I² statistics. Statistical analyses were performed using R version 4.2.3. Results Twenty-two studies comprising 39,322 participants were included in the meta-analysis. We divided the exposure and the control into 4 pairwise meta-analyses including BMI cut-off values of <25 kg/m², <30 kg/m², <35 kg/m², <40 kg/m². There were no significant differences between groups with a BMI <25, <30, <35 in all-cause mortality (<25: OR 0.96; 95% CI 0.76 - 1.21; p: 0.708 / <30: OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.68 - 1.14; p: 0.340 / <35: 0.97; 95% CI 0.80 - 1.19) p: 0.784) respectively; but with an increasing tendency towards favoring a higher BMI. On the other hand, the higher BMI analysis (<40) demonstrated a significant association between higher BMI and less mortality (OR 0.52; 95% CI 0.29 - 0.95; p: 0.034). Conclusion In patients undergoing ECMO, a higher BMI is associated with decreased all-cause mortality.Figure 1.Cut off <25; Cut off <30Figure 2.Cut off <35; Cut off <40
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