Nutritional Imbalances during Extracorporeal Life Support

Extracorporeal life support has become an integral part of the technologies used in the intensive care. Renal replacement therapy is used daily and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has become more popular in the recent years with the increasing prevalence of influenza-induced severe respiratory failure. Many years ago, critically ill infants requiring ECMO were found to have the highest rates of whole body protein breakdown ever recorded. However, most of the physicians are not aware of the nutritional consequences of the use of new technologies. The aim of this chapter is to describe the changes induced by artificial membranes and the required therapies to optimize nutritional support.