• Nicole Erwin, Jeannie Zuk, Jon Kaufman, Zhaoxing Pan, Esther Carpenter, Max B Mitchell, and Eduardo M da Cruz.
• Department of Pediatrics, The Heart Institute, Children's Hospital Colorado, School of Medicine, University of Colorado at Denver, 13120 East 16th Avenue, Aurora, CO 80045, United States of America.
• Cardiol Young. 2013 Apr 1;23(2):258-64.

BackgroundAlthough survival to hospital discharge among children requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support for medical and surgical cardio-circulatory failure has been reported in international registries, extended survival and re-hospitalisation rates have not been well described in the literature.Material And MethodsThis is a single-institution, retrospective review of all paediatric patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for primary cardiac dysfunction over a 5-year period.ResultsA total of 74 extracorporeal membrane oxygenation runs in 68 patients were identified, with a median follow-up of 5.4 years from hospital discharge. Overall, 66% of patients were decannulated alive and 25 patients (37%) survived to discharge. There were three late deaths at 5 months, 20 months, and 6.8 years from discharge. Of the hospital survivors, 88% required re-hospitalisation, with 63% of re-admissions for cardiac indications. The median number of hospitalisations per patient per year was 0.62, with the first re-admission occurring at a mean time of 9 months after discharge from the index hospitalisation. In all, 38% of patients required further cardiac surgery.ConclusionsExtended survival rates for paediatric hospital survivors of cardiac extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support for medical and post-surgical indications are encouraging. However, re-hospitalisation within the first year following hospital discharge is common, and many patients require further cardiac surgery. Although re-admission hospital mortality is low, longer-term follow-up of quality-of-life indicators is required

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