Clinical Programs - ECMO

Riley Hospital is the first hospital in Indiana to provide the advanced life support technique called Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). This program of care provides both cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are so diseased or damaged that they are not able to support life despite all other interventions. ECMO treatment provides oxygenation and ventilation until lung and cardiac function has sufficiently recovered to maintain gas exchange and perfusion.

First opened in 1987, Riley's ECMO is one of only 12 ECMO National Centers of Excellence that have received this award three times since its inception in 2007. To date, more than 700 infants have been treated in the Riley ECMO center.

Training

Trainees in the Neonatology and Pediatric Surgery Fellowship programs learn the complex interplay between technically complicated cardiopulmonary devices and personnel-intensive services provided by expert technical specialists and physicians. Education about extracorporeal support is provided by the medical and surgical directors of the program through a bi-weekly year-long recurring series of basic and clinically relevant seminars and several didactic lectures. Experiential learning occurs during management of patients requiring extracorporeal support under the tutelage of faculty.

William A. Engle, MDDirector, Clinical Affairs