BACKGROUND: The primary
goal of this study was to characterize the clinical outcomes of
adult patients with
hematologic malignancies (HM)
who were treated with
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support when conventional
treatments failed.
METHODS: In this retrospective,
observational study at a tertiary medical center, we reviewed the
clinical course of 23 consecutive
patients with HM requiring ECMO
who were admitted to the
intensive care unit at Asan Medical Center from March 2010 to April 2015.
RESULTS: A total of 23
patients (8
female ; median age, 44 years; range, 29–51 years) with HM and severe acute circulatory and/or
respiratory failure received ECMO
therapy during the study period. Fourteen
patients received veno-arterial ECMO, while 9
patients received veno-venous ECMO. The median ECMO duration was 104.7 hours (range, 37.1–221 hours). Nine
patients were successfully weaned from ECMO. The
in-hospital mortality rate was 91.1% (21 of 23). There were
complications in 3
patients (
cannulation site
bleeding ,
limb ischemia , and gastrointestinal
bleeding ).
CONCLUSION: ECMO is a useful
treatment for
patients with circulatory and/or pulmonary failure. However, in
patients with HM, the outcomes of
ECMO treatment results were very poor, so it is advisable to carefully decide whether to apply ECMO to these
patients .