Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Pediatric Burn Patients Without Inhalation Injury: A Unique Population?

Prolonged mechanical ventilation (MV) before the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is associated with decreased survival. Pediatric burn patients without inhalational injury are a unique population as they may be intubated for longer durations due to frequent interventions such as dressing changes and burn excisions. This study utilized the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization registry and evaluated patients 0 to 18 years old placed on ECMO and with a burn injury from January 2010 to December 2020. Inhalation injury was excluded. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were performed. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between mortality and precannulation MV duration before ECMO cannulation, and odds ratios and predicted probabilities of mortality were estimated. Our cohort of 47 patients had a median age of 2.7 years old. Mortality occurred in 48.9% of the cohort. The overall median number of days on ECMO was 6.3 days, with no difference between survivors and non-survivors (6.8 days vs 6.3 days; P = .67). Survivors were ventilated for 4.1 days and non-survivors for 4.8 days before cannulation (P = .25). Regression modeling demonstrated that with each additional day on MV before ECMO cannulation, the odds of mortality increases by 12% (P = .03). Our study suggests that, similar to pediatric patients without thermal injury, increasing precannulation MV duration is associated with an increasing risk of mortality in pediatric burn patients without inhalational injury. Though the pediatric burn population is unique, evaluation of burn patients with respiratory failure for ECMO should be similar to the general population.