Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a useful technique for providing emergency mechanical care for patients with cardiogenic shock or respiratory failure. It is used successfully as a bridge to restore the heart and lungs function.
ICATT Kyathi air ambulance has helped patients from most towns and hospitals lacking ECMO by providing this facility on time. Let us see this article to know more about ECMO and how ICATT helps towns who need ECMO.
What is ECMO?
ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) is a machine that pumps and circulates blood through an artificial system. The system maintains a cardiopulmonary bypass function outside the patient’s body. Help support patients awaiting heart or lung transplants.
ECMO is used in very sick people who have a life-threatening disease that eventually causes the heart and lungs to stop working correctly. For example, ECMO is needed in shock following a massive heart attack or severe lung damage from infection.
People who need ECMO are treated in an intensive care unit and can be held for hours to weeks. ECMO machines are only used to support the patient’s life, not to treat illness or injury. ECMO can save the patient, but a doctor should carry out any other treatment for injury or disease.
Benefits by providing ECMO on time :
ECMO is used for people who are very sick and unable to respond.
- It is used when the lungs are either less responsive or unresponsive to supply oxygen even after releasing additional oxygen.
- It is used when the lungs cannot produce carbon dioxide even with a mechanical ventilator and ECMO.
- Benefits patients with a heart that can’t pump enough blood to the body
- ECMO supports people with heart or lung failure and waiting for an organ transplant.
Why use ICATT and when to Call 9701111156 to provide ECMO?
ICATT provides ECMO for poor or rural towns with no facility for infants and adults with severe lung or heart problems. The conditions that require ECMO are:
- Congenital diaphragmatic hernia
- Congenital heart defects
- Meconium aspiration syndrome
- Severe pneumonia
- Severe air leak problem
- Severe high blood pressure
- Recovery after heart surgery
How does the ECMO engine work?
The ECMO machine is connected to the patient via a plastic tube (cannula), and the process is called cannulation. Tubes are placed in large veins and arteries in the legs, neck, or chest. The ECMO machine pumps blood from the patient’s body to an artificial lung (oxygenator) which adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide. In this way, it replaces the function of a person’s lungs.
The ECMO machine then sends blood back to the patient through a pump with the same power as the heart and replaces its function. The ECMO machine is controlled by someone called a perfusionist or a nurse or an advanced respiratory therapist called an ECMO specialist.
The perfusion specialist or ECMO specialist adjusts the machine settings to give the patient the required amount of cardiac and pulmonary support.
ECMO type
There are two types of ECMO: VA (venous-arterial) and VV (venous-venous):
VA ECMO
Two needles (tubes) are put, one in the vein and the other in an artery, usually on the neck’s side. Dark (low-oxygen) blood flows continuously from the venous tube to the ECMO chain, while oxygen-rich blood from the ECMO chain returns to the body via the arteries’ tube.
VV ECMO
This type of ECMO supports the heart and lungs and can be used for children who need ECMO support for the heart or airways. For a few children who need ECMO after open-heart surgery, a needle (tube) can be inserted directly into the heart through the chest, not the cervical vessels, during cardiac surgery.
How are patients monitored on the ECMO machine?
Anyone connected to the ECMO machine in the ICU is also connected to the monitor. This monitor measures heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen level. Very often, ECMO patients require blood tests to measure oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. This test is called a blood gas. ECMO sufferers are also given drugs to thin the blood, so it doesn’t clot. This way, the blood is often tested to make sure it is runny enough. These results are used to determine how much the ECMO machine helps the patient and changes if necessary.
ECMO is not easy to implement
The nature of ECMO’s resources is perhaps its main drawback. Although there are more than 500 facilities worldwide that can provide therapy, it can take months or even years to assemble a hospital team with the right equipment and expertise to implement it.
Therefore, ICATT focuses not on expanding the use of ECMO to new centres, but on increasing the capacity of providing ECMO to the towns so that they can perform the procedure on more patients.
If a town has a health centre that treats typically ten of these patients, we can help them get more equipment to treat 20 or 30 of those patients. We have been doing
our expansion in our centre rather than trying to create a new centre.
For whom ICATT provides ECMO facility?
India’s small cities or towns are in dire need of better infrastructure to improve life quality. While many large cities have developed in recent years, India’s small towns continue to fall behind. These places face many challenges, including poor road connections, primary health systems and ECMO.
Several years ago, ambulances were only used to bring patients to the hospital. While today’s modern ambulances consist of the latest technological equipment, patients can receive emergency services before reaching the next hospital. At times due to ECMO provided by ICATT in a nearer hospital, the patient does not need to be transferred to a larger hospital. On the other hand, in many cities in our country, some places are not accessible to ordinary ambulances due to lack of development or lack of space in these areas. These areas can be remote areas or locations that a standard size ambulance cannot reach quickly. In this case, it would be better to use air like ICATT Kyathi provides ECMO team and facility on time.
Conclusion:
The ICATT Kyathi Air Ambulance Intensive Care Medicine aims to provide state-of-the-art ECMO machines for critical lung infections and heart disease, even in towns.
We have the best team of doctors and support staff who understand the patient’s situation and are ready to take appropriate action to save lives. We know the value of every heartbeat of everyone.For more information on ECMO in your town, contact ICATT Kyathi Air ambulance at +91-9701111156.
