Offering renal care and beyond.
Heart and lung support
Treating pulmonary and cardiac failure
Heart and lung support bundles our treatments for patients suffering from pulmonary and/or cardiac failure. Working from one single platform that combines both heart and lung support, we offer a variety of different treatment options. These are based on the principle of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or short ECMO.
ECMO is an established form of extracorporeal life support (ECLS). It provides cardiopulmonary support in critically ill patients when conventional measures fail (e.g. mechanical ventilation, inotropes or other cardioactive drugs, etc.).1
Put simply, ECMO therapy bypasses the function of the lungs. The patient's blood is withdrawn from the body via cannulas and regulated with the support of a pump. Outside the body the blood is freed from carbon dioxide (CO2) and enriched with oxygen (O2) in a gas exchanger – a so-called artificial lung. The blood then re-enters the body through a second cannula.2
Therapeutic applications
ECMO as a rescue measure is indicated, for instance, in the therapy support of severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) with refractory hypoxemia, or in refractory cardiogenic shock (CS). These are not the only critical situations in which ECMO is used, yet are the most common as described in literature.1,2
The full spectrum of ECMO support
With our product offering, we support the full spectrum of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary treatments: From partial CO2 removal to full oxygenation3,4, from low to high blood flows and from pediatric patients up to adults.
Different cannulation strategies define the type of ECMO treatment
There are two basic ECMO modes that are used, depending on which organ in the body needs support: veno‑arterial (VA) and veno‑venous (VV). VA ECMO is the treatment when both heart and lungs need support, while VV cannulation is chosen when only respiratory function needs support.
Related content
1 Brogan TV et al. Extracorporeal Life Support: The ELSO Red Book (5th edition) 2017
2 Sangalli F ECMO-Extracorporeal Life Support in Adults 2014; 19-36
3 Redwan B et al. Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg 2015; 21:766-772
4 Braune S et al. Intensive Care Med 2016; 42(9):1437-1444
5 Combes A et al. Intensive Care Med 2022; doi: 10.1007/s00134-022-06796-w