ECMO in newborn infants: the New South Wales experience.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been used at the Prince of Wales Children's Hospital, Sydney for the treatment of newborn infants with life-threatening respiratory or cardiac failure since August 1989. The main indications are that the disease is reversible, the surviving infant is likely to be normal and there is an 80% likelihood of death without ECMO. Eighteen of 19 newborn infants have survived at least 2 months after ECMO. The 15 infants receiving ECMO (nine with meconium aspiration, six with persisting pulmonary hypertension) who did not have a congenital diaphragmatic hernia were normal survivors. One death occurred at 5 months of age from chronic lung disease. Three of four infants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia were discharged following ECMO and appeared normal at 6, 9 and 18 months of age. These results are similar to results from other centres internationally. It appears that ECMO is a useful therapy for near-term newborn infants with otherwise fatal cardiorespiratory failure.
Kerr
S
S
Prince of Wales Children's Hospital, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia.
Crawford
M
M
Currie
B
B
Pracy
E
E
Stacey
R
R
Duffy
B
B
D015199:Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation; D006548:Hernia, Diaphragmatic / Q000628:therapy; D065630:Hernias, Diaphragmatic, Congenital; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008471:Meconium Aspiration Syndrome / Q000628:therapy; D009517:New South Wales; D010547:Persistent Fetal Circulation Syndrome / Q000628:therapy