Articles & News

the ECMO Specialist

Who is truly qualified to be an ECMO SPECIALIST? The answer to that question seems to vary widely across the United States. Some believe ONLY perfusionists can really be the Specialist. Some believe Nurses and Respiratory Therapists might be trained to be technicians with Perfusion back up. Some believe Perfusion involvement isn’t a necessity. There […]

ECMO Advantage Trains Local Hospital to Provide ECMO Transport Services

As the demand for ECMO support increases, one local hospital expands their ECMO support capability to retrieve sick patients who are on ECMO or may need ECMO to bring them back to their experienced ECMO Center in Nashville. ECMO Advantage was honored to assist them with some ECMO education needs at our ExtraCorporeal Education Center […]

Miracle Machine Makes Heroic Rescues — And Leaves Patients In Limbo

This article from Melissa Bailey of Kaiser Health News highlights some of the challenges we have with rapidly emerging technologies in healthcare. Part of the mission of ECMO Advantage has been to help institutions learn how to safely and responsibly utilize ECMO to provide the best possible care for their patients. Each institution has its […]

We’re Celebrating!

ECMO System Type Survey

Play Ball!

ECMO is a Team Sport Between 2010 and 2017, the number of ECMO cases and centers nearly doubled according to the ELSO registry report published January 2018. Research has shown that patient outcomes (survival rate and complications) are closely related to the volume of cases at individual centers. In this retrospective, single-institution cohort study at […]

Let’s all get on the same page…

I think we’ve all received shift report at some point in time and thought, “what support is my patient on exactly?” ECLS terminology shifts from specialist to specialist, physician to physician, and institution to institution. Thanks to The ELSO Maastricht Treaty for ECLS Nomenclature: abbreviations for cannulation configuration in extracorporeal life support, we can all […]

Will Extracorporeal Modalities Replace Conventional Ventilators?

As extracorporeal modalities expand into nontraditional support of critically ill patients, the question of “Will Extracorporeal Modalities Replace Conventional Ventilators?” becomes a valid and interesting thought.  A recent article discussed ECCO2R as an Adjunct to Ventilation in ARDS.  Extracorporeal CO2 removal, also referred to as respiratory dialysis, has demonstrated the feasibility of its use as […]

Teen Who Walked on ECMO Home From Hospital

Awesome story about a teen who walked on ECMO making it home from the hospital! Congrats to the Children’s Mercy ECMO team in Kansas City for a job well done! See story on CNN here.