Objectives: To describe the cerebral hemodynamic profiles associated with ischemic and hemorrhagic brain injury during neonatal and pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
Design: A retrospective cohort study.
Setting: Tertiary PICU.
Patients: Forty-seven neonatal and pediatric patients (0-15 yr of age) placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation from January 2014 to December 2018.
Measurements and main results: Continuous monitoring of mean arterial pressure and cerebral tissue oxygen saturation was conducted through entire extracorporeal membrane oxygenation run. Wavelet analysis was performed to assess changes in cerebral autoregulation and to derive pressure-dependent autoregulation curves based on the mean arterial pressure and cerebral tissue oxygen saturation data. Patients were classified into three brain injury groups: no-injury, ischemic injury, and hemorrhagic injury based on neuroimaging results. No-injury patients (n = 23) had minimal variability in the autoregulation curve over a broad range of blood pressure. Ischemic injury (n = 16) was more common than hemorrhagic injury (n = 8), and the former was associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Ischemic group showed significant abnormalities in cerebral autoregulation in the lower blood pressure range, suggesting pressure-dependent cerebral perfusion. Hemorrhagic group had highest average blood pressure as well as the lowest cerebral tissue oxygenation saturation, suggesting elevated cerebral vascular resistance. Mean heparin dose during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was lower in both ischemic and hemorrhagic groups compared with the no-injury group.
Conclusions: This study outlines distinct differences in underlying cerebral hemodynamics associated with ischemic and hemorrhagic brain injury acquired during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Real-time monitoring of cerebral hemodynamics in patients acquiring brain injury during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation can help optimize their management.