Tag: Ecmo

Critically ill patients on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) are often underfed, with studies showing mean daily calorie delivery can be significantly below calculated requirements. This highlights the complex dual challenge of determining what are the energy needs for ECMO, encompassing both the patient's metabolic demands and the machine's substantial electrical power consumption.

Patients on ECMO often face a hypermetabolic state, requiring specialized nutrition to aid recovery. This is because the underlying critical illness and the ECMO circuit itself can dramatically increase the body's energy and protein demands, which if unmet, can lead to severe malnutrition. Understanding how many calories do you need for ECMO is a complex but crucial component of critical care management.