Pediatric anesthesia & critical care
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Initiated in the Operating Room After Congenital Heart Surgery:A Single-Center Review of Survival Outcomes
Authors' conclusion
While ECMO continues to be a life-saving intervention, children requiring ECMO in the OR after cardiac surgery for CHD face high mortality.
Study context
- Population
- Children supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in the OR after cardiac surgery for congenital heart disease (CHD) (failure to wean from cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB)), 2000 to 20230.8% of cardiac surgical cases
- Participants
- 123 children
- Outcome
- Survival to discharge
Methodological detailssingle-centre, quaternary children's hospital
- Single-centre
- Quaternary children's hospital
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Survived to discharge
55
45%
Incidence of ECMO initiated in the OR (of cardiac surgical cases)
0.8%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Patient and procedural characteristics
- Median age, months (IQR 0.2-10.0)
- 1.6
- Complex cardiac surgery (RACHS-1 categories 3-6)
- 108 (88%)
- 2-ventricle circulation
- 77 (63%)
- Single-ventricle circulation
- 38 (31%)
- Cavopulmonary circulation
- 8 (5%)
- Median CPB time, minutes (IQR 188-348)
- 253
- Aortic cross-clamp time, minutes (IQR 71-172)
- 109
- ECMO duration, days (IQR 3-9)
- 5
- Cardiac catheterization
- 61 (50%)
- Surgery while on ECMO
- 41 (34%)
- Heart transplant or transition to ventricular assist device
- 11 (9%)
Safety
- Cardiac complications
- 21%
- Neurologic complications
- 24%
- Bleeding common in all patients on ECMO
Parts of this Brief are withheld: the automatic checks could not confirm them against the abstract.
Original publication
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Initiated in the Operating Room After Congenital Heart Surgery:A Single-Center Review of Survival Outcomes. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. Published 30 October 2025. doi:10.
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