Results of ECMO therapy in cohorts of neonates and children

Objective: Retrospective evaluation of a sample of 21 neonates and children treated with ECMO. Design: Observational, retrospective with prospective data collection. Setting: Paediatric and neonatal intensive care unit of a teaching hospital. Materials and methods: Between October 2010 and present, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support was initiated in 21 patients based on meeting the indication criteria (12 neonates, 9 children). According to the etiology and severity of the cardiorespiratory failure, veno-arterial (V-A) ECMO was indicated in 57% of the patients (83% of the neonates, 22% of the children) - the remaining patients were treated with veno-venous (v-V) ECMO. Results: The survival rate was 58% in the neonatal group and 77% among the children. This work contains a brief comparison with some results of other international studies. Due to sample size, no statistical evaluation was performed. Conclusion: The authors demonstrate on the published sample that provision of the discussed care is needed in the Czech Republic. Many parameters of the presented outcomes are - in spite of the small sample size - comparable with the outcomes of the international registry.