• Yunus Emre Özlüer, Mücahit Avcil, Duygu Ege, and Kezban Şeker Yaşar.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Adnan Menderes University, Aydın, Turkey
• Turk J Med Sci. 2021 Apr 30; 51 (2): 555561555-561.

Background/AimThe primary purpose of this study is to report the experience on the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) process for patients in the critical care unit (CCU) of an emergency department of a tertiary hospital in Turkey, from cannulation to decannulation, including follow-up procedures.Materials And MethodsThis retrospective and observational study included eight patients who received ECMO from January 2018 to January 2020. We evaluated the demographics, indications for ECMO, laboratory values, Respiratory ECMO Survival Prediction, Survival After Veno-Arterial ECMO and ECMO net scores, the management process, and patient outcomes. Blood gas analyses done after the first hour of ECMO initiation and the reevaluation of the patients’ Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores in the 24th hour of ECMO were recorded.ResultsThe mean age was 52.7 ± 14.2 years. The median duration of the ECMO run was 81 (min–max: 4–267) h, and the mean length of CCU stay was 10.2 ± 6.7 days. Of the 8 patients studied, 5 (62.5%) had veno-arterial and 3 (37.5%) had veno-venous ECMO. Three patients were successfully weaned (37.5%). The overall survival-to-discharge rate was 25%. Carbon dioxide levels were significantly decreased 1 h after ECMO initiation (P = 0.038) as well as the need for vasopressors. Lactate levels were lower in decannulated patients. Changes in the APACHE II score were more consistent with the clinical deterioration in patients than SOFA score changes were.ConclusionsIn the early phase of ECMO, vital signs improve, and the need for vasopressors and carbon dioxide levels decrease. Thus, CCUs in Emergency Departments with ECMO capabilities could potentially be designed, and emergency department ECMO algorithms could be tailored for critically ill patients in addition to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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