Objective ·To assess the effect of veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) treatment on the mortality rate of patients suffering from cardiogenic shock and cardiac arrest in hospital. Methods ·A total of 19 patients with cardiogenic shock or cardiac arrest who were treated with VA-ECMO treatment in Suzhou Kowloon Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from September 2017 to March 2022 were included in the retrospective study. Patients were divided into extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) group (n=9) and VA-ECMO for cardiogenic shock (E-CS) group (n=10) according to whether cardiac arrest had occurred. The general demographic data, clinical data, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores, postoperative complications and prognostic indicators of the two groups of patients were collected. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were used to evaluate the correlation between each covariate and hospital mortality. Results ·Among the included patients, there were 15 males (78.9%), with an average age of 46.5 (34.5, 61.6) years. The incidence of postoperative complications was as follows: bleeding (47.4%), AKI (36.8%), infection (31.6%), limb ischemia (15.8%) and cerebrovascular accident (5.3%). The duration of VA-ECMO was 4.0 (2.0, 6.8) days, and the intensive care duration was 11.5 (5.8, 26.2) days; the ECMO withdrawal success rate was 63.2%, and the hospital mortality was 63.2%. The results of univariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that AKI (prior to VA-ECMO initiation), postoperative complications of infection and limb ischemia were correlated with the hospital mortality of patients (all P<0.05). The results of multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that AKI (prior to VA-ECMO initiation), postoperative complications of infection and limb ischemia were also independent risk factors for the hospital mortality of patients (all P<0.05). Conclusion ·For patients with cardiogenic shock and cardiac arrest treated with VA-ECMO, AKI (prior to VA-ECMO initiation), postoperative infection and limb ischemia are independently associated with higher hospital mortality.