Tsyganenko D, et al. - As extracorporeal life support (ECLS) can be applied as a bridge to diagnosis and decision-making for further treatment with long-term left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), researchers analyzed the datasets of 100 of 618 ECLS patients who received an LVAD for long-term support and received further support with a long-term LVAD, with the goal of developing an algorithm to predict outcomes for a rational use of long-term ventricular assist device therapy in this setting. Outcomes suggest that patients experiencing cardiogenic shock stabilized using ECLS could undergo LVAD implantation with elevated mortality in an otherwise futile situation. The risk for mid-term mortality was higher in correlation with liver dysfunction, inflammatory status and obesity.