Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

A cardiac transport system for donor hearts was associated with better 1-year outcomes for recipients compared with traditional cold storage, according to new data from the GUARDIAN registry.

The use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support as a bridge to lung transplantation in children increased in the U.S. from 2004 to 2019, researchers reported in Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

Patients with severe COVID-19 who received venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support had “exceptional early survival” to discharge that was sustained 1 year after cannulation, researchers reported in Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Treatment with baricitinib reduced mortality in critically ill patients with COVID-19 receiving invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, researchers reported in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Of more than 3,000 lung transplants performed in the U.S. from August 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021, 7% were performed to treat severe, irreversible lung damage caused by COVID-19, researchers reported in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Mortality on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was higher in the second wave of patients with COVID-19, despite improvements in treatment before ECMO initiation, according to data presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting.

Among patients with myositis-associated rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was well tolerated with no deaths from direct complications, according to a case series published in Chest.

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A protocol for daily assessment of readiness for liberation from venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was feasible and safe, researchers reported in Chest.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation-facilitated resuscitation in refractory ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.