Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust seeks to replace ten ECMO (Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machines, alongside eight water heaters. tee in the summer of 2017.

ECMO is used for babies and children with severe cardiac and/or respiratory failure, including those receiving cardiothoracic transplants. Water heaters are essential to the functioning of ECMO support.

The replacement of these pieces of equipment is critical to ensuring the sustainability of intensive care services across the Trust.

ECMO is a technique that allows babies and children with severe respiratory difficulties to have the function of their lungs (and also their heart if needed), supported with a mechanical pump and artificial lung. Children with severe respiratory failure who are unresponsive to support with a ventilator and drug therapy require extracorporeal life support. This is a complex technique using a modified heart/lung bypass machine.

ECMO is a technique that allows babies and children with severe respiratory difficulties to have the function of their lungs (and also their heart if needed), supported with a mechanical pump and artificial lung. Children with severe respiratory failure who are unresponsive to support with a ventilator and drug therapy require extracorporeal life support. This is a complex technique using a modified heart/lung bypass machine.

ECMO involves connecting a child's internal circulation to an external blood pump and artificial lung. A catheter is placed in the right side of the heart and carries blood to a pump, then to a membrane oxygenator, where gas exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place. The blood then passes through tubing back into either the venous or arterial circulation.