Monday, December 07, 2009

Novel H1N1 flu and ECMO

From Hospitalist News:

ECMO is emerging as a therapeutic modality to be considered in more and more patients with ARDS.

“In 5 or 10 years, every ICU will have this capability,” said Dr. Robert H. Bartlett, the first clinician to successfully use extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for adults with severe respiratory failure in 1975. But the 70–80 U.S. hospitals with ECMO capability could be swamped by patients with 2009 H1N1 he said.....

During a month-long “superepidemic” of H1N1 influenza in Australia earlier this year, 6% of hospitalized patients were admitted to the ICU, and 2% of all admissions (or 30% of ICU patients) were sick enough to need ECMO,...


Read the rest here.

Related posts on ECMO and ARDS here and here.

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