The clinical experience of emergency medical team-initiated extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

Objective To summarize the efficacy of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) utilization in Emergency Department (ED), as well as the establishment of emergency ECMO team. Methods A retrospective analysis was carried out in 16 patients treated with ECMO between April 2015 to December 2016 in ED. The clinical data including demographics, diagnosis, initiating ECMO timing, place of ECMO establishment, intubation approaches, duration of ECMO, complications and outcomes were collected and analyzed. Results Eight patients were successfully weaned from ECMO, and 7 of them survived to discharge from hospital. The duration of ECMO support was 4 to 384 hours. The emergency ECMO team was set up. Conclusions Emergency medical team can successfully operate the ECMO process. The emergency medical team-initiated ECMO can provide effectively adjuvant measures to support patients with respiratory failure, circulatory failure and cardiac arrest. Key words: Emergency physician; ECMO; Respiratory failure; Circulatory failure; Cardiac arrest