• Sara C Fallon, Lara S Shekerdemian, Oluyinka O Olutoye, Darrell L Cass, Irving J Zamora, Trung Nguyen, Eugene S Kim, Emily L Larimer, and Timothy C Lee.
• Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Texas Children's Hospital Fetal Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
• Pediatr Crit Care Me. 2013 May 1; 14 (4): 366-73.

ObjectivesVenovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation has been used to provide cardiopulmonary support in critically ill infants and children. Recently, dual-lumen venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation has gained popularity in the pediatric population. Herein, we report our institutional experience using a bicaval dual-lumen catheter for pediatric venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support, which has been our unified approach for venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation since 2009.DesignThis study is a retrospective review.SettingThe setting is a tertiary children's hospital in a major metropolitan area.PatientsBetween 2009 and 2011, 11 patients were cannulated using a dual-lumen bicaval venous catheter. Patient demographics, cannulation details, circuit complications, complications of catheter use, and patient outcomes were collected from a retrospective chart review.InterventionsNone.Measurements And Main ResultsEleven of the patients were cannulated for venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation using the dual-lumen bicaval cannula. The median age at the time of venovenous cannulation was 1.9 years (range, 0.14-17.1), and the median weight was 10.2 kg (range, 3-84). Three patients (27%) required conversion to venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The median duration of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support was 10 days (2-38 days). Fifty-five percent of patients suffered from a bleeding complication (disseminated intravascular coagulation, pulmonary hemorrhage, or intraventricular hemorrhage), and 45% had a circuit complication. Adequate flow rates were achieved in all patients. The overall hospital mortality in the series was 55%. There were no cannula-related complications.ConclusionsThis review presents the first single-institution experience with the dual-lumen Avalon cannula in pediatric patients. Preliminary results indicate that the catheter can be safely placed and has an acceptable complication profile; however, continued study within larger trials is necessary to fully ascertain the clinical profile of this catheter.

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