Long-term follow-up of neuropsychological complications in neonates undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been widely used in severe neonatal diseases for approximately 50 years, while few studies have concentrated on the long-term follow-up of its neuropsychological development.

To assess the long-term neuropsychological complications in children who underwent ECMO in infancy.

The PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, and EMBASE databases were searched for retrieving studies published in the recent 10 years (until June 10, 2022). All studies were eligible that concentrated on the long-term follow-up of neuropsychological complications in neonates undergoing ECMO. Excluding animal studies, neonates with congenital craniocerebral dysplasia and studies with data from the same center performed at different times. Statistical analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 and Stata/SE 12.0 software. A random-effects model was used to report results. The sensitivity analysis was utilized to identify sources of heterogeneity.

The meta-analysis of 10 studies that enrolled 1199 patients was conducted, showing the pooled morbidity of intelligence (pooled morbidity: 20.3%, 95% CI: 0.16-0.25, I²: 9.5%, P=0.33), motor activity (pooled morbidity: 10.3%, 95%CI: 0.07-0.14, I²: 43.5%, P=0.15), learning (pooled morbidity: 9.0%, 95%CI: -0.03-0.21, I²: 63.2%, P=0.10), hearing (pooled morbidity: 15.7%, 95%CI: 0.02-0.29, I²: 94.2%, P=0.00), vision (pooled morbidity: 18.5%, 95%CI: 0.12-0.25, I²: 0%, P=0.46), cognition (pooled morbidity: 26.3%, 95%CI: 0.19-0.34, I²: 0%, P=0.32), attention (pooled morbidity: 7.4%, 95%CI: 0.02-0.13, I²: 38.9%, P=0.20), speed in attention (pooled morbidity: 69.9%, 95%CI: 0.62-0.78), and accuracy in attention (pooled morbidity: 39.0%, 95%CI: 0.30-0.48) in neonates undergoing ECMO. The results of the Begg's test and sensitivity analysis indicated that the heterogeneity was originated from factors other than sample size.

This systematic review and meta-analysis showed that neonates undergoing ECMO were associated with various neuropsychological complications. Additional randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a larger sample size and a higher quality are needed.