• Seong Mi Moon, Hyun Lee, Ji Hoon Moon, Hee Kyung Kim, Jee Eun Park, Seonggyu Byeon, Gee Young Suh, and Chi Ryang Chung.
• From the *Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, †Department of Medicine, and ‡Department of Critical Care Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
• ASAIO J. 2016 Mar 1; 62 (2): e15-7.

AbstractRecently, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support has been increasingly applied in acute respiratory failure. The ECMO brings some advantages for enhancing the capacity of lung regeneration. Thus, the timing of determining irreversibility of the injured lung could be delayed. In this study, we experienced a case of prolonged maintenance of veno-venous ECMO for 104 days that resulted in native lung recovery. In this case, the initial empirical treatment showed no response within 4 weeks with ECMO support but the patient did not want a lung transplantation. With prolonged maintenance of the ECMO, related ethical issues arose, such as how long should the applied ECMO be maintained. Hence, there was a discussion that was centered on the timing of determining futility and ethical issues, while applying the ECMO in acute respiratory failure.

15 keywords...

hide…