Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in COVID-19-Related Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome – A EuroELSO International Survey (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a means to support patients with acute respiratory failure. Initially, recommendations to treat severe cases of pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) with ECMO have been restrained. In the meantime, ECMO has been shown to produce similar outcomes in patients with severe COVID-19 compared to existing data on ARDS mortality.Objective: We performed an international email survey to assess how ECMO providers worldwide have previously used ECMO during the treatment of critically ill patients with COVID-19.MethodsA questionnaire with 45 questions (covering e.g. indication, technical aspects, benefit and reasons for treatment discontinuation), mostly multiple-choice, was distributed by email to ECMO centers. The survey was approved by the European branch of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO).Results: 276 centers worldwide responded that they employed ECMO for very severe COVID-19 cases, mostly in veno-venous configuration (87%). The most common reason to establish ECMO was isolated hypoxemic respiratory failure (50%), followed by a combination of hypoxemia and hypercapnia (39%). Only a small fraction of patients required veno-arterial cannulation due to heart failure (3%). Time on ECMO varied between less than two and more than four weeks. The main reason to discontinue ECMO treatment prior to patient’s recovery was lack of clinical improvement (53%), followed by major bleeding, mostly intracranially (13%). Only 4% of respondents reported that triage situations, lack of staff or lack of oxygenators were responsible for discontinuation of ECMO support. Most ECMO physicians (66% ± 26%) agreed that patients with COVID-19 induced ARDS (CARDS) benefitted from ECMO. Overall mortality of COVID-19 patients on ECMO was estimated to be about 55%, scoring higher than what has previously been reported for Influenza patients on ECMO (29 – 36%).Conclusion: ECMO has been utilized successfully during the COVID-19 pandemic to stabilize CARDS patients in hypoxemic or hypercapnic lung failure. Age and multimorbidity limited the use of ECMO. Triage situations were rarely a concern. ECMO providers stated that patients with severe COVID-19 benefitted from ECMO. An increasing use in patients with respiratory failure in a future stage of the pandemic may be expected.Funding Statement COVID-19 research was funded by the Federal state of Saarland, Saarland University and Dr. Rolf M. Schwiete Foundation.Declaration of Interests Robert Bals declares funding from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Grifols, Novartis, CLS Behring, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Competence Network Asthma and COPD (ASCONET), Sander-Stiftung, Schwiete-Stiftung, Krebshilfe and Mukoviszidose eV. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed. All other authors No potential conflicts of interest.Ethics Approval Statement The ethical committee (Ärztekammer des Saarlandes) waived the need for a formal approval since the questionnaire did not retrieve actual patient data.