November 17, 2011: Daniel Brodie, MD, and Matthew Bacchetta, MD, Co-directors of the Center for Respiratory Failure at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, have published an important review article about ECMO in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article details how extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) can take over the function of the lungs in adults with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) to give severely damaged lungs time to rest and heal.
In addition to improving ECMO techniques in order to reduce side effects, Drs. Brodie and Bacchetta have also devised a mini-ECMO unit that can be used to transport critically ill patients to the Center. These advances represent a dramatic improvement in the treatment of patients with ARDS, which can be associated with high mortality rates. To date, every patient treated by the new ECMO program has recovered and is now thriving. According to Dr. Brodie, "Evidence is accumulating that referring patients with severe respiratory failure to a center capable of performing ECMO is beneficial for these patients."
See the article in NEJM here.
Learn more about the new Center for Acute Respiratory Failure here.