What are ECMO and ECLS?
These are two terms that mean roughly the same thing.
What does ECMO mean?
ECMO stands for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.
Extracorporeal means outside the body.
Membrane is like an artificial lung - this is where the carbon dioxide is removed and oxygen is added.
Oxygenation means adding oxygen to the blood.
What does ECLS mean?
ECLS stands for Extracorporeal Life Support:
Again, Extracorporeal means outside the body.
Life Support means a machine that helps the body's vital organs when they are failing.
ECLS is sometime used to mean the same thing as ECMO, but really it also includes other types of machines like VAD.
VAD stands for Ventricular Assist Device:
Ventricular means about the ventricles, which are the blood-pumping chambers of the heart.
Assist means to help.
Device is a medical machine.