Management of refractory hypoxemia during elective extracorporeal support for complex tracheal resection

Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) is increasingly used in managing challenging airway and thoracic cases with complex airway manipulations. We present a case of a complex tracheal resection needing prolonged apnea times for which VV-ECMO was electively planned. Intraoperatively, the team was faced with continued oxygen desaturations during periods of apnea. With an algorithmic approach to troubleshooting hypoxemia, several factors were taken into consideration. Apneic oxygenation was applied to the open tracheal segment. Despite an open airway, the applied apneic oxygenation facilitated oxygenation to the portion of the cardiac output that was being shunted through the lungs as opposed to the VV-ECMO circuit, enabling uninterrupted completion of the surgical resection and reanastomosis.