Characteristics, outcomes, and 30-day readmissions following pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in the United States: A Nationwide Readmissions Database study

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is an increasingly used mode of critical care support for pediatric patients refractory to conventional therapy. We evaluated the characteristics, outcomes, and readmissions rates for pediatric ECMO in the United States. Data was extracted from the Nationwide Readmissions Database, a database designed to support national readmissions analyses, for patients aged 1–18 years undergoing ECMO between 2012–2018. Baseline demographics, comorbidities, and characteristics were identified using International Classification of Diseases codes. Out of 897,117 index pediatric hospitalizations, 3706 patients underwent ECMO [median age 9 years (IQR 2,15); 51.6% males]. 2246 (60.6%) patients survived to hospital discharge, with a 30-day readmissions rate of 17% among survivors. Cardiac conditions associated with ECMO were congenital heart disease (25.3%), cardiogenic shock (23.6%), and congestive heart failure (16.2%). The common respiratory associations were sepsis (36.2%), pneumonia (35.6%), and asthma (15.4%). Patients who survived were more likely to have diagnoses of asthma, bronchiolitis, myocarditis, pneumonia, and sepsis. Acute kidney injury (51.5%), disseminated intravascular coagulation (22.5%), and surgical site bleeding (12.7%) were the commonly associated complications. The trend for yearly survival rates was not statistically significant (linear p-trend = 0.38). Pediatric ECMO continues to be associated with notable mortality and complication rates. We did not observe a meaningful trend for the yearly survival rates over the study period, and over one-sixth of survivors were readmitted within 30-days. More research is needed to identify patients at high risk of mortality and readmissions, to help target resources more efficiently and improve survival.