Extracorporeal life support 1997.

Data from the annual international Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Registry Report for 1997 are presented. Over 17,000 patients treated with extracorporeal life support as submitted to the ELSO Registry are reported. Seventy-five percent (over 13,000) patients were cases of neonatal respiratory failure, with an 80% overall survival. The number of neonatal respiratory cases reported to the Registry has been decreasing for 5 years, whereas the number of pediatric respiratory, cardiac, and adult respiratory cases has been increasing. Cumulative survival in these categories is 53%, 42%, and 47% respectively. Survival in pediatric and adult respiratory failure cases supported with extracorporeal life support continues to improve. A description of the re-engineering of the ELSO registry, to include redesigning of the database structure and elements, electronic submission and validation of data, and Internet based submission and retrieval of data, is also provided.