REGIONAL NEED FOR NEONATAL ECMO IN LOMBAR DIA

ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) is rarely used in Italy com pared to other Northamerican or Northeuropean countries. To evaluate t he need for neonatal ECMO in our region we sent a questionnaire to the main neonatal intensive care centers asking to identify those newboms who would have had indication to ECMO in 1994. 21 new borns infants h ad indication to ECMO in 13 NICU in Lombardia. Among them, 3 have been transferred to the ECMO center: 2 survived and I died because of a hy poxic cerebral death. 18 new borns have not been considered for ECMO: 5 survived and 13 died. This survey shows that ECMO is indicated in 1: 3567 live births in our region (similarly to other european countries) and the small number of treated infants is due to the lack of referra l of infants having indication to ECMO.