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J Card Surg
. 2020 Jul 17.
doi: 10.1111/jocs.14867. Online ahead of print.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and COVID-19: The causes of failure
Zargham Hossein Ahmadi 1 , Alireza Jahangirifard 1 , Behrooz Farzanegan 2 , Payam Tabarsi 3 , Zahra Abtahian 4 , Atefeh Abedini 4 , Mehrzad Sharifi 1 , Amir Naser Jadbabaei 1 , Yadollah Mafhumi 4 , Ali Moslem 4 , Marjan Sistani 4 , Sahar Yousefian 4 5 , Ali Saffaei 6 , Farzaneh Dastan 4 5
Affiliations
- PMID: 32678961
- DOI: 10.1111/jocs.14867
Abstract
Introduction: Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) is a therapeutic strategy for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). There are inconclusive data in this regard and causes of VV-ECMO failure are not yet understood well.
Case series: Here, seven patients with COVID-19-induced ARDS who underwent VV-ECMO introduced and causes of VV-ECMO failure discussed. Medical records of seven COVID-19 patients treated with VV-ECMO were retrospectively evaluated to determine the clinical outcomes of VV-ECMO. Oxygenator failure occurred in four patients whom needed to oxygenator replacement. Successful VV-ECMO decannulation was done in three patients, however finally one patient survived.
Conclusions: Hypercoagulability state and oxygenator failure were the most main etiologies for VV-ECMO failure in our study. All patients with COVID-19 undergoing VV-ECMO should be monitored for such problems and highly specialized healthcare team should monitor the patients during VV-ECMO.
Keywords: SARS coronavirus; SARS-CoV infection; acute respiratory distress syndrome; extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; hypercoagulability.