Clinical Profile of Neonates with Cardiorespiratory Failure Needing Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: A Retrospective Observational Study

Background Neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a lifesaving therapeutic intervention for critically ill neonates with hypoxic respiratory or cardiac failure not responding to conventional management. Objectives To estimate the clinical profile of neonates with hypoxic respiratory failure requiring ECMO over 10 years. Methods This was a retrospective single-center observational study including all neonates requiring ECMO due to cardiorespiratory failure between 2012 and 2022 at neonatal and cardiac intensive care. Data were collected regarding clinical profile, duration of ECMO, complications, and survival rate. Results A total of 26 neonates underwent veno-arterial ECMO during the study period. The mean birth weight (BW) was 2,880 g. Post-operative congenital heart disease (CHD) ( n = 24) was the major category requiring ECMO with transposition of great vessels attributing to the most number of cases (57.6%). The mean duration of ECMO was 155.88 hours. Twenty-four neonates weighed more than 2,000 g and the survival rate was 41.6% among them, whereas the survival rate was 50% for less than 2,000 g BW neonates. The mortality was 100% and 28.5% when the duration of ECMO was more than seven days and less than seven days, respectively. The overall survival to hospital discharge was 57.7%. Conclusions Post-operative-cardiac cases were a major category in our center for undergoing ECMO with a higher survival rate noted when the ECMO was initiated within the first week of life and the duration of ECMO was less than seven days.