The serious most risk that COVID-19 poses onto its patients is the lung dysfunction, clearly stating that- the inability of lungs fails to disseminate enough oxygen to the liver, brain, and other body organs. According to a new cohort study by West Virginia University, an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation device, a bioprotective device, may be particularly useful for treating some of these COVID-19 patients.
Though, ECMO fails to provide the aid to the older COVID-19 patients, or the ones having pre-existing conditions, and have worsened heart function. The ECMO machine pumps blood outside the body to supply oxygen and return it to the body. In this way, the ECMO machine gives the lungs, sometimes the heart, time to rest and heal
EMCO machine have the power to keep a few patients alive when only ventilators are not adequate to maintain that life support. At the time of the researcher analysis, 22 patients (68%) survived. Patients with lung and cardiac ECMO support have not yet been successfully removed from ECMO. Patients who receive ECMO support for both the heart and lungs may have these differences because they are sicker from the start and have more impaired heart function.
Insights like these help clinicians to “counsel patients and family members about the individualized risks and benefits of ECMO,” said Jeremiah Hayanga, WVU’s director of ECMO and a member of the research team. The team also included Vinay Badhwar, president of the WVU Cardiovascular and Vascular Research Institute, and Jeffrey Jacobs, a consultant at HVI and a comparative number collaborator for cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the medical school.
“Patients whose disease is restricted to the lung have been shown to have better survival, and this is indeed true for all indications of ECMO,” Hayanga said. “When both heart and lung function are impaired, however, there is a reduction in survival, and selection in these patients warrants even greater scrutiny.”
