Journal of Chest Surgery (Feb 2021)

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Coronavirus Disease 2019: Expert Recommendations from The Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

  • In Seok Jeong,
  • Woong-Han Kim,
  • Jong Hyun Baek,
  • Chang-Hyu Choi,
  • Chang Woo Choi,
  • Euy Suk Chung,
  • Jae Seok Jang,
  • Woo Sung Jang,
  • Hanna Jung,
  • Jae-Seung Jung,
  • Pil Je Kang,
  • Dong Jung Kim,
  • Do Wan Kim,
  • Hyoung Soo Kim,
  • Jae Bum Kim,
  • Woo-Shik Kim,
  • Young Sam Kim,
  • Jae Gun Kwak,
  • Haeyoung Lee,
  • Seok In Lee,
  • Jae Woong Lim,
  • Se Jin Oh,
  • Tak-Hyuck Oh,
  • Chun Soo Park,
  • Kyoung Min Ryu,
  • Man-Shik Shim,
  • Joohyung Son,
  • Kuk Hui Son,
  • Seunghwan Song

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5090/kjtcs.21.001
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 54, no. 1
pp. 2 – 8

Abstract

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Since the first reported case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in December 2019, the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths have continued to increase exponentially despite multi-factorial efforts. Although various attempts have been made to improve the level of evidence for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment over the past 10 years, most experts still hesitate to take an active position on whether to apply ECMO in COVID-19 patients. Several ECMO management guidelines have been published recently, but they reflect some important differences from the Korean medical system and aspects of real-world medical practice in Korea. We aimed to find evidence on the efficacy of ECMO for COVID-19 patients by reviewing the published literature and to propose expert recommendations by analyzing the Korean COVID-19 ECMO registry data.

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