Types of Extracorporeal Life Support and Evolution of Extracorporeal Oxygenators

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a form of extracorporeal life support (ECLS), is a direct extension of cardiopulmonary bypass technology used for providing support to patient with cardiorespiratory failure despite maximum conventional therapy. For over 50 years, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support remained much the same technically; the deoxygenated blood drained from the patient via an outflow cannula gets oxygenated, with the accompanying removal of carbon dioxide, before the blood is returned back to the patient through an inflow cannula. One of the remarkable milestone changes seen in ECLS was the revolutionized improvement of the functional durability of extracorporeal oxygenators from the prototype bubble and film-surface-type oxygenators to today’s non-microporous membrane oxygenators. It would have been impossible to have a long-term ECMO support application if not for the decades of perseverance and painstaking efforts of scientists, pioneer heart surgeons, material sciences experts, and industrial experts in search of high-performance extracorporeal oxygenators. Today, with the technological advancement in pump consoles, pump heads, tubing surface coating, oxygenators, and cannula, coupled with collective knowledge and experience in ECMO, the usage of the ECMO in critical care has been heightened.