Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: beneficial strategy for lung transplant recipients

The role of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as a therapeutic strategy has been very well documented for over a decade now with consistently positive remarks. The aim of the present study was analyzing the outcome of ECMO application in our lung transplant program, especially the feasibility and safety of our ECMO approach. Therefore, we retrospectively analyzed the data of 15 patients recipients requiring ECMO support. We analyzed clinical data, complications, and survival of the lung-transplanted population that needed ECMO support at our institution from 2006-2009. During that period, 19 applications of ECMO were done on 15 adult patients with the following indications: primary graft dysfunction (10 patients), "bridge to transplantation" (five), pulmonary hypertension (three), and severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (one). At 28 days, the overall survival was 93% (14 of 15 patients) and 12 of these patients (80%) survived at least 6 months. Complications included acute renal insufficiency with temporary need of renal replacement therapy (53%), bleeding (33%), critical illness polyneuropathy (66%), and reversible thrombocytopenia (73%). Based on the evaluation of the patients in this analysis, ECMO seems to be a safe therapeutic approach in lung transplant recipients with severe respiratory failure directly after transplantation.