Hospital survival of patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock has improved during recent years. Before the 1990s, emphasis on a medical and supportive approach to treatment of these high-risk patients (including thrombolytic therapy) was not clearly associated with improving outcomes. However, in the past decade, the interventional approach to treatment of acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock (mainly acute infarct angioplasty) has led to an improving prognosis across a broad spectrum of patients with cardiogenic shock.