• Mazen F Odish, Jenny Yang, George Cheng, Cassia Yi, Eugene Golts, Michael Madani, Travis Pollema, and Robert L Owens.
• Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
• Crit Care Explor. 2021 May 1; 3 (5): e0393.

ObjectivesTo describe a ventilator and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation management strategy for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome complicated by bronchopleural and alveolopleural fistula with air leaks.Design Setting And ParticipantsCase series from 2019 to 2020. Single tertiary referral center-University of California, San Diego. Four patients with various etiologies of acute respiratory distress syndrome, including influenza, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia, e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury, and coronavirus disease 2019, complicated by bronchopleural and alveolopleural fistula and chest tubes with air leaks.Measurements And Main ResultsBronchopleural and alveolopleural fistula closure and survival to discharge. All four patients were placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation with ventilator settings even lower than Extracorporeal Life Support Organization guideline recommended ultraprotective lung ventilation. The patients bronchopleural and alveolopleural fistulas closed during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and minimal ventilatory support. All four patients survived to discharge.ConclusionsIn patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome and bronchopleural and alveolopleural fistula with persistent air leaks, the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to allow for even lower ventilator settings than ultraprotective lung ventilation is safe and feasible to mediate bronchopleural and alveolopleural fistula healing.Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

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