Utilidad del Ecocardiograma en ECMO: Experiencia en Pediatría.

Abstract

The extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in children emerged more than 4 decades ago, as we have progressed over time the indications are increasing, and echocardiography plays a fundamental role for the choice or discard of the patient, cannulation and initiation, monitoring, and weaning from ECMO support. Understanding the anatomy and physiology of the ECMO circuit, and the patient, is crucial before any echocardiographic evaluation for ECMO support. However, decisions should not be made exclusively by the findings on the echocardiogram because it has limitations, so it must be correlated with the clinic of the patient. Guidelines for pediatric echocardiography do not yet exist. The guidelines are inherent to each ECMO team, so each ECMO team should adopt its protocol according to the needs. In the following review we include the role of echocardiography for Arterio-Venous (VA) and Veno-Venous (VV) ECMO.