Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Support in 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease: Indications, Timing, and Implementation

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread rapidly across Hubei province and dispersed to all regions in China owing to its person-to-person transmission and strong invasiveness targeting the lower respiratory tract.[1] By the end of February 15, 2020, more than 68,000 cases of COVID-19 pneumonia had been confirmed in China, including over 1,600 fatalities. [2] Most infected patients who developed COVID-19 pneumonia suffered from only mild symptoms and then completely recovered. However, in some patients, the phenotype may rapidly progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multi-organ failure.

Because the evidence for recovering from COVID-19 with ECMO is extremely limited so far, we can learn from the previous experiences in the treatment of similar severe viral pneumonia cases through retrospective literature review and data analysis.