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

Objectives: 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. Design: A single-center retrospective cohort study. Setting: Tertiary referral center for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in Sweden. Patients: Long-term survivors treated between 1995 and July 2009. Seven patients from a previously published study investigated with a similar protocol were included. Interventions: Brain imaging, neurocognitive testing, interview. Measurements and Main Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.