Aluminum-Containing Emboli in Infants Treated with Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

Abstract
We found fibrin thrombi or thromboemboli at autopsy in 22 of 23 infants with respiratory failure who had been treated with venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). In addition, distinctive basophilic aluminum-containing emboli were found in 12 of the infants; the distribution of these emboli was similar to that of the thromboemboli, except that an aluminum-containing embolus was found in a lung in only 1 infant. Sixteen infants had pulmonary thrombi or thromboemboli.