The use of extracorporeal techniques in cardiopulmonary support has spread in the last 20 years. ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) devices are the most commonly employed option, and have been used for years in lung transplant programs. Nevertheless, few articles on the results of ECMO involving large numbers of cases have been published to date. The use of ECMO in respiratory failure a...

: In general thoracic surgery, extracorporeal mechanical cardio-respiratory support (EMCS) techniques are performed intraoperatively mainly for respiratory but also cardiocirculatory support. The increasing panel of EMCS technologies available in surgery is the result a century clinical practices, engineering progress, and improvements physiological knowledge. Complex procedures tumor resection...

Extracorporeal life support has become an integral part of the technologies used in the intensive care. Renal replacement therapy is used daily and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has become more popular in the recent years with the increasing prevalence of influenza-induced severe respiratory failure. Many years ago, critically ill infants requiring ECMO were found to have the highe...

In patients with severe respiratory failure, either hypoxemic or hypercapnic, life support with mechanical ventilation alone can be insufficient to meet their needs, especially if one tries to avoid ventilator settings that can cause injury to the lungs. In those patients, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which is also very effective in removing carbon dioxide from the blood, can pro...

Refractory cardiac shock in the cardiac surgical intensive care unit confers significant morbidity and mortality. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has become a common intervention for refractory cardiogenic shock when other therapies have failed. However, it is difficult to predict who will benefit from this costly, resource-intensive, but potentially life-saving technology. Here, we ...

Background Unintentional drowning and accidental hypothermia are important causes of death worldwide, and may occur simultaneously. In the case of severe accidental hypothermia with cardiac arrest, recent guidelines recognised extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and cardiopulmonary bypass as safe and effective rewarming techniques, with survival rates of approximately 50%. We assessed wh...

A 39-year-old man experienced total obstruction of a distal tracheal plastic stent by a tumor mass, preventing effective ventilation and resulting in cardiac arrest. Resuscitation by emergency bedside venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) permitted time to physically remove the obstructing tumor and reestablish successful ventilation and liberation from ventilatory support. W...

65-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with acute decompensated heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and severe mitral regurgitation. Electrocardiography revealed a typical left bundle branch block and atrial fibrillation. Her condition deteriorated despite administering high-doses of inotropes and vasopressors. Pending a decision to therapy, venoarterial extrac...

Despite the lack of evidence in the literature, we report the case of a 25-year-old man involved in a road traffic accident, who had an inferior vena cava (IVC) injury and severe lung contusion with parenchymal bleeding requiring an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). An emergency procedure to implant a stent graft was successful in repairing the IVC injury. Moreover, we think that ECMO...

Introduction. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is one of the most serious complications during postoperative period in cardiac surgery. Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) has proven to be a valuable therapy ARDS when standard insufficient. Our aim present case severe which was succesfully treated by VV-ECMO. Case outline. A 54-year-old male patient urgently admit...