Ultrasonographic assessment of aortic flow characteristics in a paediatric patient with sepsis treated with extracorporeal life support: defining the mixing zone

Tristan Reddan; Prem S Venugopal; Jennifer Powell; Adrian C Mattke

doi:10.1002/ajum.12206

Ultrasonographic assessment of aortic flow characteristics in a paediatric patient with sepsis treated with extracorporeal life support: defining the mixing zone

Australas J Ultrasound Med. 2020 Jun 18;23(4):255-263. doi: 10.1002/ajum.12206. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Tristan Reddan^{1

2}, Prem S Venugopal^{3

4}, Jennifer Powell^{1

4

5}, Adrian C Mattke^{4

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine Queensland Children's Hospital Stanley Street Brisbane Queensland 4101 Australia.
² School of Clinical Sciences Faculty of Health Queensland University of Technology (QUT) 2 George Street Brisbane Queensland 4000 Australia.
³ Department of Cardiovascular Surgery Queensland Children's Hospital Stanley Street Brisbane Queensland 4101 Australia.
⁴ School of Medicine University of Queensland Brisbane Queensland 4006 Australia.
⁵ QScan Radiology Clinics Brisbane Queensland 4030 Australia.
⁶ Paediatric Intensive Care Unit Queensland Children's Hospital Brisbane Queensland 4101 Australia.
⁷ Paediatric Critical Care Research Group Childrens' Health Research Centre University of Queensland Graham Street Brisbane Queensland 4101 Australia.

Abstract

We describe a case of severe sepsis in a 14-year-old boy who was treated with veno-arterial (VA) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support. The haemodynamic challenges inherent to femoro-femoral VA ECMO are discussed, and the use of ultrasonography to define the location of the mixing zone in the abdominal aorta is demonstrated. We propose that the use of ultrasound is able to assist clinicians in understanding perfusion of abdominal organs in the presence of suspected differential oxygenation.

Keywords: extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; paediatrics; sepsis; ultrasonography.

Publication types

Case Reports