A review of the clinical value of mechanical ventilators and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) equipment

Acute healthcare providers operate large, diverse medical equipment inventories. Resources for managing these inventories is frequently scarce so must be prioritised such that maximum benefit is conferred per unit of expenditure.

This review identifies publications which have discussed the clinical value conferred by mechanical ventilation (MV) and by extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Respectively, mechanical ventilators and ECMO units are necessary to deliver these therapies. Systematic searches for publications which discuss the clinical value conferred by MV and by ECMO were conducted.

The identified articles included reviews, prospective studies, retrospective studies, and models. Most presented findings in terms of the cost-effectiveness ratio. The patient populations studied, and analytical methods used varied widely. The clinical value conferred by MV varied with dependencies on several factors including the age- and disease- profile of the patient population. It was not possible to infer these dependencies from the literature which exists for ECMO.

More relevant literature existed for MV, the more mature technology, than did for ECMO. The ECMO literature also tended to be more recent and included more modelling studies and fewer prospective studies. The data extracted could inform estimates of the clinical value likely to be delivered by mechanical ventilators operated by a specific institution. Estimates for ECMO are likely to carry greater uncertainty than those for MV.