# ECMO IN RESPIRATORY FAILURE

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 1994 · $50,601

## Abstract

For the past 20 years this work has been supported by NIH. As a result of
these studies ECLS (also known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation,
ECMO), has been studied in the laboratory, evaluated in patients, and has
become standard treatment for severe respiratory failure in newborn
infants. In the past 3. years, pilot clinical studies in pediatric and
adult patients with severe respiratory failure look very encouraging.
There are now over 80 ECMO centers worldwide, attaining survival rates of
80-95% in moribund newborn infants and 50-6O% in older children and
adults. Our cost effectiveness and morbidity study in neonates
demonstrated that ECMO improved survival while decreasing morbidity and
hospital costs.

Having established that ECMO is not only feasible but standard therapy in
term neonates, and with encouraging preliminary results in premature
infants and older children, we now propose to improve and simplify the
technique based on the following rationale. The problems which limit the
final phase of development of ECLS are thrombosis and bleeding, complexity
and expense. Elimination of thrombosis, microembolism, and bleeding will
extend the safe application of ECLS to one month and will permit
application to new groups of patients including premature infants and
surgical patients. We have demonstrated instead that ECLS can be carried
out without bleeding, clotting or heparin. We now plan to study the
physiology of ECLS without heparin. New catheters will simplify routine
percutaneous vascular access through a single vein. Total automation will
improve safety while decreasing expense. With these improvements in
technology, ECLS can be used to facilitate direct treatment of the lung
made possible by extracorporeal gas exchange.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2197196
- **Project number:** 3R01HD015434-13A1S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **SAM.gov UEI:** GNJ7BBP73WE9
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert H. Bartlett
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1994
- **Award amount:** $50,601
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 1980-08-01 → 1997-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2197196

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2197196, ECMO IN RESPIRATORY FAILURE (3R01HD015434-13A1S1). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2197196. Licensed CC0.

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