Objective:

to determine the characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients under 18 years of age treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) after surgery for the repair or palliation of congenital heart disease.

Method:

longitudinal descriptive study with retrospective data collection.

Results:

between January 2015 and December 2020, 77 patients required ECMO after pediatric cardiac surgery with a median age of < 1 month, median weight of 4 kg, ECC time 202 minutes (IQR 125-272 minutes), aortic cross-clamp time 95 minutes. 76.6% were supported with ECMO prior to their return to the ICU. The congenital heart disease most frequently admitted to ECMO was hypoplastic left heart syndrome (19.4%) in the Norwood postoperative period (18.1%). The median time of ECMO was 111 hours. The most frequent indication was ventricular dysfunction (80.5%). 80.5% presented complications and reoperation for bleeding was the most frequent of these (46.7%). ECMO survival was 48% and overall survival at discharge was 25.97%. Age < 1 month (p = 0.030), pre-ECMO lactic acid ≥ 5 mmol/l (p = 0.014), OR 0.260 and time of normalization of lactate ≥ 24 hours (0.021), OR 0.24 were associated with a higher risk of mortality at hospital discharge.

Conclusions:

ECMO provides adequate support after surgery for the repair or palliation of congenital heart disease. Age < 1-month, pre-ECMO lactic acid ≥ 5 mmol/l, and lactate normalization time ≥ 24 hours were the variables that were associated with poor outcome and hospital mortality.

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