The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) is a non profit organization established in 1989 supporting health care professionals and scientists who are involved in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). ELSO maintains a registry of both facilities and specialists trained to provide ECMO services. ELSO also maintains registry information that is used to support clinical research, support regulatory agencies, and support individual ELSO centers. ELSO provides educational programs for active centers as well as for facilities who may be involved in the transfer of patients to higher levels of care.
ELSO Chapters.
In addition to the North American-based ELSO organization, chapters have been developed to represent the regional needs of ELSO in the rest of the world. Current chapters include:
ELSO Registry.
Since 1989, ELSO has maintained a registry of clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients supported with ECMO. A history of the ELSO registry has been published and demonstrates how it evolved over time from paper documentation, to a modern database with web based data entry. Data managers at each of the ELSO centers use detailed database definitions and a point-of-entry data warning system to minimize errors in data entry, as well as full record validation triggered upon submission of the record to ensure all mandatory fields are completed. The ELSO registry has been instrumental in improving ECMO care, post-cardiac arrest management, pediatric ventricular assist devices, and organ transplantation.
The last formally published ELSO Registry report was in 2017, and contained clinical characteristics, complications, and outcomes of 78,397 patients supported with ECMO. Demonstrating the rapid growth of ECMO, at the beginning of 2020, the ELSO Registry contained information on 129,037 patients from 435 member centers across the world.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ELSO registry began collecting data on the worldwide use of ECMO for patients with COVID-19 and reporting this data on the ELSO website in real time. In September 2020, the outcomes of 1,035 COVID-19 patients supported with ECMO from 213 experienced centers in 36 different countries were published in The Lancet, and demonstrated 38% mortality, which is similar to many other respiratory diseases treated with ECMO.
Guidelines for care.
ELSO promulgates guidelines for the care of patients on ECMO. They include overall guidelines about setting up a program, proper equipment, and patient care for certain medical conditions. Additional education on ECMO topics is provided through ELSO published textbooks and training manuals for ECMO specialists. ELSO recognizes centers with exceptional programs, systems, processes, and outcomes with the Award for Excellence in Life Support.
Position statements.
ELSO provides position statements on:
References.
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