Complications of ECMO
Complications of using ECMO can generally be divided into major and
minor complications. They can be classified into various categories;
inflammatory response, limb ischemia, anticoagulation-related and
infections. Major complications poses a significant threat to the
patient’s life such as sepsis and intracranial haemorrhage, while minor
complications such as bleeding around the cannula sites could occur at
an early stage but may progress to more adverse events if appropriate
action is not taken to correct them. Table 6 is a summary of such
complications.