Clinical experience of more than 2 months usage of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Endumo® 4000) without circuit exchange

A 5-year-old girl with right atrial isomerism, complete atrioventricular septal defect, hypoplastic left ventricle, double outlet right ventricle, and mixed-type total anomalous pulmonary venous connection with totally occluded left pulmonary veins presented at our center for fenestrated total cavo-pulmonary connection with an extra cardiac conduit at the age of 3 years. Eleven months after the Fontan completion, she developed protein-losing enteropathy (PLE). Spontaneously closed fenestration was thought to be the cause of the PLE, and she underwent revision of fenestration at the age of 5 years. After the operation, PLE did not improve, and newly developed hypoxemia impaired her systemic ventricular function, leading to the initiation of veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) with the Endumo® system 18 days after the operation to treat her hemodynamic instability. Although the ECMO circuit was changed three times during the first 8 days, the fourth circuit could be used for 74 days without hemolysis and serum leakage, until the patient unfortunately died 82 days after the operation due to multi-organ failure.