Background to our research work
Organ replacement in circulatory failure - if conservative therapy approaches do not lead to success, an extracorporeal procedure is the therapy option of choice. Complications with ECMO have often limited its use and the time period for the patient to be stabilized on this procedure has often been too short. The ECMO working group has tackled this problem and has already successfully achieved some significant improvements in therapy. On the one hand, this means that longer phases of ECMO can be carried out stably and, on the other hand, the range of indications can be extended. Milestones achieved to date include
- Successful implementation of awake ECMO even in small patients
- Mobilization of patients on ECMO
- ECMO to support heart function during lung transplantation
Research priorities and objectives of the AG ECMO
The aims of the ECMO working group are
- Increasing patient safety by means of awake ECMO and preventing secondary complications (sedation effects, ventilation effects, neuropathies)
- Optimization of access routes and thus opening up new application possibilities for extracorporeal replacement procedures
- Improvement of established ECMO protocols through standardization and surveillance
- The results of the studies should help to make ECMO therapies even safer and thus make them a life-saving option for other diseases and patient groups.