NORTHWESTERN TRAINING SMALLER HOSPITALS ON ECMO: The pandemic shed light on the usefulness of, and lack of access to, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), or extracorporeal life support.
It's advanced technology typically used at larger medical centers, which is why Northwestern Medicine has launched a training program to teach the use of ECMO and a mobile program to make it more available to community hospitals, the system said in a statement.
The life-prolonging process in which blood is removed from the body, oxygenated and returned to the lungs allows a patient's lungs to rest and for treatments to address underlying conditions.
"When medications and a breathing machine aren't enough, ECMO can serve as a 'bridge' to medical improvement or a lung transplant," said Dr. Kalvin Lung, thoracic surgeon with Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute. "We tend to use ECMO for patients suffering severe lung failure from illness and injuries such as COVID-19, the flu, pneumonia, drowning and gunshot wounds. ECMO has fewer complications than intubating, or using a ventilator, to assist the lungs. In large part, we've become so much better with using ECMO because of COVID-19 and the flu."
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the academic medical health system set up the Northwestern Medicine Regional Lung Rescue Program to provide community hospitals access to ECMO therapy. The program is mobile, as most patients needing ECMO are too unstable for transport. A...
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