Long-Term Cognitive Outcome and Brain Imaging in Adults After Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

To investigate the presence of cognitive dysfunction and brain lesions in long-term survivors after treatment with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for severe respiratory failure, and to see whether patients with prolonged hypoxemia were at increased risk.

A single-center retrospective cohort study.

Tertiary referral center for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in Sweden.

Long-term survivors treated between 1995 and July 2009. Seven patients from a previously published study investigated with a similar protocol were included.

Brain imaging, neurocognitive testing, interview.

Thirty-eight patients (i.e., n = 31 + 7) were enrolled and investigated in median 9.0 years after discharge. Only memory tests were performed in 10 patients, mainly due to a lack of formal education necessary for the test results to be reliable. Median full-scale intelligence quotient, memory index, and executive index were 97, 101, and 104, respectively (normal, 100 ± 15). Cognitive function was not reduced in the group with prolonged hypoxemia. Brain imaging showed cerebrovascular lesions in 14 of 38 patients (37%), most commonly in the group treated with venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (7/11, 64%). In this group, memory function and executive function were significantly reduced.

Patients treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for respiratory failure may have normal cognitive function years after treatment, if not affected by cerebrovascular lesions. Permissive hypoxemia was not correlated with long-term cognitive dysfunction in the present study. Further prospective studies with minimal loss to follow-up are direly needed to confirm our findings.