We present the first successful case of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) at „M.S. Curie” Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children, Newborn Intensive Care Unit: a term neonate with cardiorespiratory failure secondary to left sided congenital diaphragmatic hernia. The patient was placed on veno-venous ECMO at three days of life;
however, on the fourth day, due to unstable right ventricular function, conversion to veno-arterial ECMO was mandatory. At one week of life, the patient was operated on-site for diaphragmatic hernia without ECMO support and then reintroduced on ECMO immediately after the surgical procedure, being on ECMO support for a total of 8 days. Antithrombotic treatment was administered for significant occlusion of the right common carotid artery and right internal jugular vein (complication of the cannulation for ECMO) and also long term treatment for Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension was needed. The patient was discharged at the age of four months with moderate neurodevelopmental delay. The literature review indicates that neonatal ECMO procedure in Romania is still in its early stages. Despite this state, our current case proves that ECMO can be successfully performed with increased chances of survival for neonates with severe prognosis after failure of conventional therapy.

Vascular tone is generally controlled by both the humoral component and the neuro-vegetative component. Regarding the second one, catecholaminergic sympathetic innervation of blood vessels is almost a rule in the body[1,2].
It is known that the iris is sympathetically inner-vated, both at the level of the iris dilator muscle[1,2] and at the level of iris blood vessels[3]. Cathecolamines are responsible for vasoconstriction and, in some vascular beds, vasodilation. [...]

Histamine and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) are two amino acid derivatives with important biological functions [1]. Histamine, an endogenous monoamine, is synthesized from the histidine and is stored in most tissues and degraded in liver by histaminase. The most important roles of histamine are: mediation of type I allergic reactions, stimulation of stomach secretion of hydrochloric acid and pepsin (as autacoid), and functioning as a neurotransmitter (especially in the central nervous system)[2]. Regarding the vascular effects of histamine in non-ocular territories, there have not been many published literature reviews, for example, there are data reviewed for pulmonary artery[3], brain territory[4], but these data are not recent.