Ten years of the neonatal respiratory extracorporeal membrane oxygenation program in an Argentinian public hospital.

Introduction: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a highly invasive rescue treatment for critically-ill patients. The objective of the study was to show the outcomes of patients treated with ECMO in the neonatal intensive care unit of Hospital de Pediatria Juan P. Garrahan in the first 10 years of the program, and to analyze the risk factors associated with mortality on ECMO.

[Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO): experience in a neonatal intensive care unit].

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), a poorly developed resource in Argentina, is a highly invasive rescue therapy, for critically ill patients with severe respiratory failure with or without associated cardiovascular failure and mortality probability near to 80%. This article reports the experience obtained with first patients treated with ECMO in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Hospital Garrahan at Buenos Aires. From April 2008 to January 2012, 17 patients were treated with veno-arterial ECMO.