ECMO: Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation : ECMO support for heart and/or lung insufficiency at the department of cardiothoracic surgery at Ullevaal University Hospital in the period 1998 to 2008

Abstract

BACKGROUND: ECMO-treatment is a high-cost treatment with high mortality. Few good parameters to select patients to this treatment are described. AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the results on ECMO treatment in our department, after 11 years of practice and to introduce a medical student to a clinical material. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was a retrospective one, where the material was all treated patients on ECMO between 1998 and 2008. RESULTS: 31 patients were treated, 10 women and 21 men. 25 patients had primarily a cardiac reason for ECMO-treatment, 6 had other causes (Lung embolism, drowning and intoxication). In the cardiac group there was a survival rate of 36%. Age gender, type of operation or comorbidity did not affect outcome. Limb complications were high in our material, but improved in the second period. The total prize of ECMO-treatment in our department was roughly 40 million NOK. CONCLUSIONS: ECMO treatment is expensive and the patients have a high mortality rate. During the first 11 years of ECMO treatment in our department, our mortality rate and incidence of ECMO-treatment have been quite similar to other ECMO studies. Our limb complications have been high, but improving markedly in the second period, probably as a result of changed practice of cannulation in the femoral artery.