Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is increasingly being used for critically ill patients with cardiopulmonary failure. Air in the ECMO circuit is an emergency, a rare but fatal complication.
Case Presentation: We introduce a case of a 76-year-old female who suffered from cardiac arrest complicated with severe trauma and was administered veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. In managing the patient with ECMO, air entered the ECMO circuit, which had not come out nor was folded or broken. Although the ECMO flow was quickly re-established, the patient died 6 h after initiating ECMO therapy.
Conclusions: In this case report, the reason for the complication is drainage insufficiency. This phenomenon is similar to decompression sickness. Understanding this complication is very helpful for educating the ECMO team for preventing this rare but devastating complication of fatal decompression sickness in patients on ECMO.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11143681 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13019-024-02815-7 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
How low should we go? Outcomes of ECMO in neonates with low gestational age or birth weight.
Pediatr Surg Int
January 2025
Division of Pediatric Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Florida College of Medicine, PO Box 100119, Gainesville, FL, 32610-0119, USA.
Purpose: Initial recommendations for ECMO had relative contraindications for low birth weight (BW) or low gestational age (GA) babies. However, more recent literature has demonstrated improved and acceptable outcomes of ECMO in smaller neonates. The purpose of this study was to understand both utilization and survival in patients with lower GA and BW.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOtherwise, inoperable. The role of ECMO in thoracic surgery - focus on the mediastinum.
Port J Card Thorac Vasc Surg
January 2025
Thoracic surgeon, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano, Italy.
The use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in surgery is expanding as the medical community started adopting it, with good results, for procedures with high risk of respiratory and hemodynamic instability. This technique provided the possibility to reduce the number of patients previously considered inoperable because of these limitations. Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are rare neoplastic mediastinal lesions, with a reported incidence of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong-term Mechanical Circulatory Support in Cardiogenic Shock Secondary to Acromegaly. Case report.
Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim (Engl Ed)
January 2025
Departamento de ECMO, Fundación Cardiovascular de Colombia, Floridablanca, Colombia. Electronic address:
Heart failure is a complication that may develop in patients diagnosed with acromegaly. This complication can progress to cardiogenic shock, which in cases like the one described, may be refractory to optimal medical management, necessitating the use of mechanical circulatory support as a bridge to decision. Given the specific morphology of this patient's heart, the likelihood of finding a suitable donor in our environment was very low.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnd-tidal carbon dioxide-guided extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation improves neurological prognosis in patients: a single-center retrospective cohort study.
Braz J Anesthesiol
January 2025
Zhongshan City People's Hospital, Department of Anesthesiology, Zhongshan, China.
Background: Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR) is an effective intervention for restoring adequate circulatory perfusion after cardiac arrest. Ensuring high-quality Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) before initiating Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is critical to mitigate tissue hypoxia and ischemia. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of End-Tidal Carbon Dioxide (ETCO) Goal-Directed CPR (GDCPR) on neurological function before ECMO using a retrospective case-control analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReal-time prediction of heparin concentration in blood extracorporeal circulation by relaxation time distribution (RTD).
Bioelectrochemistry
January 2025
Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi, Inage, Chiba 263-8522 Japan.
Heparin concentration c in a blood extracorporeal circulation has been real-timely predicted based on the relaxation strength Δε at relaxation frequency f extracted by relaxation time distribution (RTD). The simulated extracorporeal circulation was conducted to optimize the number of Δε for the prediction of c using the porcine whole blood (WB) and low-leukocyte and -platelet blood (LLPB) under the condition of the gradual increment of c from 0 to 8 U/mL with constant flow rate and blood temperature. The experimental results show that among the three relaxation strengths Δε, Δε and Δε (in ascending order of frequency), Δε at f = 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!