Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) represents a useful tool to support 
the lungs and the heart when all conventional therapies failed and the patients 
are at risk of death. While the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) 
collects data from different institutions that joined the Registry and reports 
overall outcome, individual centres often collide with results below 
expectations, either in adults and in paediatric population. Some authors 
suggest that poor outcomes could be overcome with a programme dedicated to ECMO, 
with specialized professionals adequately trained on ECMO and with a consistent 
number of procedures. In 2012, The IRCCS PSD ECMO Programme was instituted with 
the specific aim of achieving better results than hitherto obtained. After only 
1 year of activity, the results justified the programme, with a better survival 
rate for each group investigated, particularly in adults, but surprisingly in 
paediatrics too, where the results were better than what reported by ELSO. 
Although the number of patients treated with ECMO is still growing up, the 
effects of the ECMO programme continue to exert a positive action on outcome 
even now. The present article reports data on survival, blood loss, and blood 
consumption during ECMO in the last few years at our institution.