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Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital Gains International Recognition for Life-Saving ECMO Treatment
(Feb 29, 2008)
Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital has received the "Excellence in Life Support Award" from the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization, an international consortium of centers offering ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) for support of failing organ systems in infants, children and adults. Since 1982, the Center for Extracorporeal Life Support at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital has been directed by Dr. Charles Stolar, Chief of Pediatric Surgery. The Center was the third in the world to successfully support a neonate. Thousands of infants have been referred as potential ECMO patients from 47 institutions throughout the tri-state area and the mid-Atlantic region.
The Excellence in Life Support Award recognizes those centers that demonstrate an exceptional commitment to evidence-based processes and quality measures, staff training and continuing education, patient satisfaction, and ongoing clinical research Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital is one of the few centers to receive the Excellence in Life Support Award since its inception in 2006.
ECMO is one of the most advanced forms of life support available to patients experiencing acute failure of the cardio-respiratory system that uses a constellation of biomedical devices that reproduce the functions of the heart and lungs. This technology provides sustained life support for selected newborn and pediatric patients; these children are often suffering from overwhelming respiratory or cardiac failure which has proved refractory to other treatments. For newborns, the therapy is not unlike returning the infant to his mother's placenta, for a more gradual transition to breathing air.
However, ECMO is only part of the respiratory care strategy in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which is itself a unique resource. Respiratory failure is the most common cause of death and complications in the newborn. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital has earned an international reputation for excellence in respiratory care, which rests on our results: The frequency of chronic lung disease in premature infants treated in our unit is the lowest in the United States. We have a particular interest in newborns with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. By designing a protocol focused on the gentle support of the fragile lungs of these babies, we have been able to turn a mortality rate of 50 percent into a survival rate of 92 percent for patients with this condition
About Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO)ELSO is a consortium of health care professionals and scientists dedicated to the development and evaluation of novel therapies for support of failing organ systems. The organization promotes ongoing research into the most effective treatment methods by maintaining a registry of patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and providing educational programs for member centers and the broader medical and lay communities. More than 115 international ECMO centers are members of ELSO, which is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
