SAVE Score (Survival After Veno-arterial ECMO)
The SAVE score (Schmidt and colleagues 2015) estimates hospital survival after VENO-ARTERIAL ECMO for refractory cardiogenic shock.
Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Myocarditis
- No
- Refractory ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation
- No
- Post heart or lung transplantation
- No
- Congenital heart disease
- No
- Age
- 63 years or older
- Weight
- 90 kg or more
- Duration of intubation prior to ECMO
- 10 hours or less
- Liver failure
- No
- Central nervous system dysfunction
- No
- Renal failure
- No
The other 6 values
- Chronic renal failure
- No
- Peak inspiratory pressure 20 cmH2O or less
- No
- Pre-ECMO cardiac arrest
- No
- Diastolic blood pressure before ECMO 40 mmHg or above
- No
- Pulse pressure before ECMO 20 mmHg or less
- No
- Bicarbonate before ECMO 15 mmol/L or less
- No
Result: SAVE score -6, risk class IV.
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What the result means
- Constant
- A constant of -6 is added to every calculation. Components summing to 0 give a score of -6, not 0.
- Additive groups
- Diagnosis groups and acute organ failures are select-one-or-more, so they stack.
- Above 5
- Class I. Reported hospital survival 75 percent.
- 1 to 5
- Class II. 58 percent.
- -4 to 0
- Class III. 42 percent.
- -9 to -5
- Class IV. 30 percent.
- -10 or below
- Class V. 18 percent. Patients in this class still survived.
What you enter
- Myocarditis
- Refractory ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation
- Post heart or lung transplantation
- Congenital heart disease
- Liver failure (bilirubin 33 micromol/L or above, or ALT/AST above 70 U/L)
- Central nervous system dysfunction (neurotrauma, stroke, encephalopathy, cerebral embolism, seizure)
- Renal failure (chronic or acute, for example creatinine above 1.5 mg/dL, with or without renal replacement)
- Chronic renal failure (kidney damage or GFR below 60 for 3 months or more)
- Peak inspiratory pressure 20 cmH2O or less
- Pre-ECMO cardiac arrest
The other 6 fields
- Myocarditis [yes = +3; no = 0]
- Refractory ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation [yes = +2; no = 0]
- Post heart or lung transplantation [yes = +3; no = 0]
- Congenital heart disease [yes = -3; no = 0]
- Liver failure (bilirubin 33 micromol/L or above, or ALT/AST above 70 U/L) [yes = -3; no = 0]
- Central nervous system dysfunction (neurotrauma, stroke, encephalopathy, cerebral embolism, seizure) [yes = -3; no = 0]
- Renal failure (chronic or acute, for example creatinine above 1.5 mg/dL, with or without renal replacement) [yes = -3; no = 0]
- Chronic renal failure (kidney damage or GFR below 60 for 3 months or more) [yes = -6; no = 0]
- Peak inspiratory pressure 20 cmH2O or less [yes = +3; no = 0]
- Pre-ECMO cardiac arrest [yes = -2; no = 0]
- Diastolic blood pressure before ECMO 40 mmHg or above (worst value within 6 hours before cannulation) [yes = +3; no = 0]
- Pulse pressure before ECMO 20 mmHg or less (worst value within 6 hours before cannulation) [yes = -2; no = 0]
- Bicarbonate before ECMO 15 mmol/L or less [yes = -3; no = 0]
- Age [18-38 = 18 to 38 years, +7; 39-52 = 39 to 52 years, +4; 53-62 = 53 to 62 years, +3; 63+ = 63 years or older, 0]
- Weight [<=65 = 65 kg or less, +1; 65-89 = 65 to 89 kg, +2; >=90 = 90 kg or more, 0]
- Duration of intubation prior to ECMO [<=10 = 10 hours or less, 0; 11-29 = 11 to 29 hours, -2; >=30 = 30 hours or more, -4]
How this is calculated
Schmidt M, Burrell A, Roberts L, et al. Predicting survival after ECMO for refractory cardiogenic shock: the survival after veno-arterial-ECMO (SAVE)-score. Eur Heart J. 2015;36(33):2246-2256. Read the source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.