In the past two years, the new crown epidemic has ravaged the world, allowing ECMO to enter the public's vision. The Chinese name of ECMO refers to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, also known as Yeke membrane, suitable for acutely critically ill patients with cardiopulmonary function problems, is regarded as the "ultimate weapon" in the intensive care unit (ICU), doctors rely on ECMO to save countless lives of seriously ill patients, and even many people call ECMO the most outstanding "work" in the field of medical science.
The essence of ECMO is a modified artificial heart-lung machine, the most core parts of which are membrane lungs and blood pumps, which play the role of artificial lungs and artificial hearts respectively. When ECMO runs, blood is drawn out of the veins, absorbs oxygen through the membrane lungs, and emits carbon dioxide. Blood that has undergone gas exchange can return to the vein (VV pathway) under the impetus of the pump, the former is mainly used for extracorporeal respiratory support, and the latter can be used for both in vitro respiratory support and cardiac support because the blood pump can replace the heart's pumping function.
When a patient's lung function is severely impaired and conventional treatment is ineffective, ECMO can undertake the task of gas exchange, leaving the lungs in a state of rest, winning valuable time for the patient's recovery. When the heart function of the same patient is severely impaired, the blood pump can replace the heart pumping function to maintain blood circulation.
The cost of ECMO is not close to the people, the starting cost of an ECMO is 50,000 yuan, and it takes 120 yuan per hour when using it, which also means that an ECMO costs 100,000 yuan a week. Moreover, ECMO is purely imported, and the price ranges from 1 million to 2 million, so not all hospitals have the ability to equip ECMO. Lv Xuewen, deputy director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine of the Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province, introduced: At present, the total number of ECMO in major hospitals in the country is more than 400 units.
ECMO can temporarily replace the patient's heart and lungs, exert the function of the heart and lungs, reduce the burden on the patient's heart and lungs, and can give medical personnel rescue time, so it is the best choice for some seriously ill patients to prolong life.
Although ECMO can help doctors save patients' lives, it is not a panacea, and it may also bring some complications, such as thrombosis, bleeding, hemolysis, end-of-limb ischemia, infection, and so on. Therefore, patients and families should be psychologically prepared in this regard, once complications occur, they must believe in the doctor, have confidence in the doctor, actively cooperate with the treatment, and face postoperative complications together.
Contributed by: Xie Lina, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province (Hunan Brain Hospital).
Editor: Liu Yuchen
Image: From the Internet, intrusion and deletion