Neonatal ECMO: Current Controversies and Trends

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a technique for providing life support to patients with cardiac and/or respiratory dysfunction, allows the heart and lungs to "rest." The neonatal respiratory population has been a major benefactor of ECMO since 1982. Its use for neonatal respiratory disease increased dramatically until the past few years, when the number of neonatal respiratory ECMO cases began a downward trend. Fewer patients with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), meconium aspiration syndrome, respiratory distress syndrome, or sepsis are requiring ECMO support as frequently as in the past. Many attribute this decline to the newer respiratory therapies-mainly, surfactant, high-frequency oscillatory ventilation, and inhaled nitric oxide. Neonates who continue to require ECMO today are sicker than the historic norm and have more complicated and lengthy ECMO runs. Patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, PPHN, and sepsis remain the most consistent in their representation among ECMO recipients within this author's institution, suggesting that the newer respiratory therapies have not had the same impact on these patients' needs for ECMO support. Better guidelines for determining which patients would benefit from earlier inititation of ECMO are needed.