The ECMO Advantage team has completed successful use of the CARDIOHELP system for neonates. After several months of planning, training, reconfiguring circuit, and waiting, the ECMO Advantage team has finally had the opportunity to manage three patients with Maquet’s CARDIOHELP. For the two neonatal patients, we used a modified 1/4 inch circuit adapted to the standard 3/8 inch CARDIOHELP circuit. There were no circuit complications noted in any of the runs.
For the last couple of years as the transition from roller head to centrifugal systems has been underway, there has been some hesitancy by some neonatal ECMO programs to switch due to the general lack of a “neonatal or pediatric” centrifugal circuits.
Several of the individuals that make up the ECMO Advantage Specialist team have had extensive experience with the CARDIOHELP. But this was the first time an ECMO Advantage client that our team supported has used the CARDIOHELP on infants. There of course have been other ECMO programs that have used the CARDIOHELP on neonatal patients. I would encourage them to publish their use so that others can have some insight into this particular application.