ECMO support in Shanghai provides guidance for managing COVID-19 patients worldwide

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Apr 1 2020

The initial experience of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) management for coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) patients in Shanghai, China provides guidance for management of critically ill COVID-19 patients worldwide, reports a study in the ASAIO Journal. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

For the most critically ill COVID-19 patients, standard ventilator care may not provide adequate support while allowing the lungs to heal and recover. Xin Li, MD and colleagues from University of Louisville, Louisville, KY and Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai, China report on COVID-19 patients in China managed with ECMO and their outcomes, to guide health practitioners in treating this challenging patient population during the worldwide pandemic.

Because there is little worldwide experience using ECMO to support COVID-19 patients, Zhongshan Hospital established a dedicated ECMO team consisting of a physician perfusionist, a critical care physician, and a pulmonologist to be available at all times to oversee ECMO management of COVID-19 patients. The team was also responsible for communicating with the newly established Shanghai COVID-19 ECMO Expert Team, a group of 12 ECMO units from Shanghai's major hospitals. Together they developed the "Shanghai ECMO Support for COVID-19 Guideline" to ensure consistency and standardization across all hospital centers.

The report details the management and outcomes of eight COVID-19 patients treated with ECMO. The article is freely available in a special online COVID-19 section of ASAIO Journal.