Extra-corporeal support during pediatric cardiac arrest resuscitation: a narrative review

ECMO for refractory cardiac arrest in children

Abstract

Refractory cardiac arrest in children is an extremely serious situation requiring immediate management with technical care. For several years, the use of extracorporeal circulation simultaneously with the medical resuscitation of refractory cardiac arrest has appeared in intensive medical practice. However, current data from the adult and pediatric literature struggle to demonstrate a benefit to the use of this heavy resuscitation technique. Among the limitations to the deployment of this advanced technique, the quality of the initial cardiac arrest resuscitation and the possibility of setting up extracorporeal circulation before the end of the first hour of cardiac arrest management remain factors. strongly limiting. The objective of this narrative review is to summarize the physiological effects of extracorporeal support during resuscitation from cardiac arrest, to synthesize the available data from the adult and pediatric literature and to detail its organization as well as the technical methods.