UPDATE : Monday, September 7, 2020
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ECMO saved 23 out of 50 most critically ill patients with Covid-19
  • By Kwak Sung-sun
  • Published 2020.08.31 16:28
  • Updated 2020.08.31 16:28
  • comments 0

Amid the continued spread of Covid-19 in greater Seoul, 50 most critically ill patients with Covid-19 received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment and 23 of them were discharged, a local medical report said.

Such positive treatment results were superior to those from ECMO treatment in other countries. In particular, physicians may highlight the importance of ECMO as an increasing number of Covid-19 patients in the Seoul metro area are the elderly, observers said.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and the Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (KSTCVS) held an online symposium on Covid-19 and ECMO on Friday.

According to the society, 50 out of patients confirmed with Covid-19 from Feb. 21 to Aug. 28 received ECMO treatment, and physicians could wean most of them off from ECMO safely.

As of Monday, three Covid-19 patients are supported with ECMO and one of them started ECMO on Monday.

More specifically, 34 out of the 50 patients stopped ECMO, three were still receiving it, and the other 13 died.

Five out of the 34 patients off from ECMO died after ECMO removal. Two out of the surviving 29 received a second ECMO treatment, and four received continuous hospital treatment. Twenty-three out of the 50 were discharged.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and the Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (KSTCVS) hold an online symposium on Covid-19 and ECMO on Friday.

At the symposium, Jung Jae-seung, a professor at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery of Korea University Anam Hospital, explained the ECMO treatment results, in comparison with ECMO results in other countries.

Jung said the average age of the ECMO-treated patients was 63, 13 years older than those in other countries, at 50.

Despite the older age, 46 percent of the Korean patients stopped ECMO and 36 percent of them died. Such results were similar or superior to ECMO treatment results in other countries, he said. There was no pulmonary embolism shown in the 50 Korean patients, while it appeared in those of other countries.

Professor Kim Jae-bum of the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Department at Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital shared the ECMO treatment experience and clinical issues during the earlier spike of confirmed cases in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.

When confirmed cases surged in Daegu and neighboring cities, Yeongnam University Hospital treated seven patients with three ECMO units, Kyungpook National University Hospital, two patients with five ECMO devices, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, three patients with four ECMO, Daegu Dongsan Hospital, three patients with a borrowed ECMO machine, and Daegu Catholic University Hospital, three patients with three units.

In such a situation, problems included an insufficient number of ECMO equipment, lack of transportation system for severely ill patients, lack of manpower and equipment related to intensive care at the base hospital, and lack of control tower composed of experts and administrators, Kim said.

To tackle the problems, Korea needs to establish an ECMO management system, a transport system for critically ill patients, and a horizontal collaboration system between medical professionals and administrative experts for efficient use of ECMO, he added.

Kim Woong-han, chair of the board of KSTCVS, said it was meaningful and hopeful that local doctors did their best to save 32 out of 50 patients, who were near to death, given the total number of Covid-19 deaths was 316.

kss@docdocdoc.co.kr

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