Complications
ECMO has problems associated with clinical trials of efficacy:
- the patient is unable to consent to or refuse treatment themselves - the provision of standard, recognised therapy is legally and ethically mandatory
- innovative / experimental treatment is restricted by both legal and ethical regulations
- it has always been compared with historical controls of conventional treatment, but the latter has improved
The following complications have yet to be confirmed to occur at increased frequency:
- renal failure due to aortic thrombosis
- severe oedema and bleeding from surgical sites
- intraventricular and intracranial haemorrhage
- neurological sequelae, e.g. sensorineural hearing loss
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