ECLS in NICU

The ECLS service in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (across the link bridge from PICU in the Maternity Building) is coordinated by the Consultant Neonatologists working together with the ECMO Surgeons and the neonatal surgeons in support of the Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia service. The Glasgow neonatal ECMO service is one of the oldest in the UK, dating back to the original UK Neonatal ECMO trial in the early 1990s. The service works closely with the PICU service next door and we share ECMO nurse specialists and train together.

With advances in obstetric care and neonatal respiratory care, the number of neonates requiring VV ECMO for respiratory failure has steadily fallen but there remain a significant number of neonates (approximately 6-10 per year) requiring VV ECMO for respiratory failure as well as babies requiring VA ECMO for sepsis, or around the time of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia repair.