Neonatal Carotid Artery and Internal Jugular Vein Management Practices at Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Decannulation: No Standard Approach

To Reconstruct or Ligate, That Is the Question!*

“…While in centers where surgical cannulation is carried out by general surgery, the vessels are not reconstructed and typically ligated. This review identified that presently, just as Zens et al (5), there is not enough prospective evidence to support one type of management over the other resulting in a lack of a standard approach to vessel management at the time of decannulation (6).…”

“…In a more recent publication by Linden et al (6), the authors distributed a survey to 37 institutions within the Children’s Hospitals Neonatal Consortium to collect the standard decannulation practices in terms of carotid and internal jugular vein management at the time of decannulation. Unsurprisingly, it was identified that in centers where cannulation is carried out by cardiovascular surgery, the vessels are reconstructed when the vessel integrity is favorable.…”