Article Text
Abstract
ECMO in neonates: neuroimaging findings and outcome Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a rescue therapy for newborns with severe but reversible respiratory failure. Although ECMO has significantly improved survival, it is associated with substantial complications of which intracranial injuries are the most important. These injuries consist of haemorrhagic and non-haemorrhagic, ischaemic lesions. Different from the classical presentation of haemorrhages in preterm infants, in ECMO treated newborns haemorrhages are mainly parenchymal and with a high percentage in the posterior fossa area. There are conflicting data on the predominant occurrence of cerebral lesions in the right hemisphere. The existence of intracerebral injuries and the classification of its severity are the major predictors of neurodevelopmental outcome. This section will discuss the known data on intracranial injury in the ECMO population and the effect of ECMO on the brain.
Neuroimaging score