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For patients with refractory acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to COVID-19 infections, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) may be the treatment of last resort.
But for reasons that aren't clear, in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic at a major teaching hospital, the mortality rate of patients on ECMO for COVID-induced ARDS was significantly higher than it was during the first wave, despite changes in drug therapy and clinical management, reported Rohit Reddy, BS, a second-year medical student, and colleagues at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
During the first wave, from April through September 2020, the survival rate of patients while on ECMO in their intensive care units was 67%. In contrast, for patients treated during the second wave, from November 2020 through March 2021, the ECMO survival rate was 31% (P = .003).
Thirty-day survival rates were also higher in the first wave compared with the second, at 54% vs 31%, but this difference was not statistically significant.
"More research is required to develop stricter inclusion/exclusion criteria and to improve pre-ECMO management in order to improve outcomes," Reddy said in a
