Clinical course of COVID-19 patients treated with ECMO: A multicenter study in Daegu, South Korea.
Woo Sung Jang, JaeBum Kim, Jonghyun Baek and 7 others
PMID 34698019WHAT IT FOUND
Eight of 19 ECMO-treated COVID-19 patients were weaned off ECMO after a median 9.8 days, and 10 died.
Of the 8 weaned, 4 came off ventilators.
Key findings
01Eight of 19 patients treated with ECMO were weaned off ECMO after a median 9.8 days.
02Ten of 19 ECMO-treated patients died, and nine of the 11 patients who were not weaned died during ECMO.
03Among the 8 patients weaned off ECMO, 4 were also weaned off mechanical ventilation, 3 still needed mechanical ventilation, and 1 died.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
It looked back at hospital records, so not all laboratory findings were checked. The six hospitals did not use one uniform laboratory checkpoint or treatment strategy. Supportive treatments varied across hospitals, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Only 19 patients were included, and the paper did not report a comparison group of patients not treated with ECMO. The authors made no assumptions about missing data.
Declared interests
The study was supported by a research grant from the Daegu Medical Association COVID-19 scientific committee, and the authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that ECMO or vitamin B12 improves survival. This was a small retrospective series of patients treated with ECMO, and patients received antiviral therapy, steroids and antibiotics, with some also receiving hydroxychloroquine, vitamin C, IVIG, vitamin B12 or continuous renal replacement therapy, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Multivariate analysis found no significant factors.