Short-term neurologic outcomes in pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation are proportional to bleeding severity graded by a novel bleeding scale

Introduction: This study aimed to characterize the severity of bleeding and its association with short-term neurologic outcomes in pediatric ECMO. Methods: Multicenter retrospective cohort study of pediatric ECMO patients at 10 centers utilizing the Pediatric ECMO Outcomes Registry (PEDECOR) database from December 2013-February 2019. Subjects excluded were post-cardiac surgery patients and those with neonatal pathologies. A novel ECMO bleeding scale was utilized to categorize daily bleeding events. Poor short-term neurologic outcome was defined as an unfavorable Pediatric Cerebral Performance Category (PCPC) or Pediatric Overall Performance Category (POPC) (score of >3) at hospital discharge. Results: This study included 283 pediatric ECMO patients with a median (interquartile range [IQR]) age of 1.3 years [0.1, 9.0], ECMO duration of 5 days [3.0, 9.5], and 44.1% mortality. Unfavorable PCPC and POPC were observed in 48.4% and 51.3% of patients at discharge, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis included patient’s age, cannulation type, duration of ECMO, need for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, acute kidney injury, new infection, and vasoactive-inotropic score. As the severity of bleeding increased, there was a corresponding increase in the likelihood of poor neurologic recovery, shown by increasing odds of unfavorable neurologic outcome (PCPC), with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 0.77 (confidence interval [CI] 0.36–1.62), 1.87 (0.54–6.45), 2.97 (1.32–6.69), and 5.56 (0.59–52.25) for increasing bleeding severity (grade 1 to 4 events, respectively). Similarly, unfavorable POPC aOR (CI) was 1.02 (0.48–2.17), 2.05 (0.63–6.70), 5.29 (2.12–13.23), and 5.11 (0.66–39.64) for bleeding grade 1 to 4 events. Conclusion: Short-term neurologic outcomes in pediatric ECMO are proportional to the severity of bleeding events. Strategies to mitigate bleeding events could improve neurologic recovery in pediatric ECMO.