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The successful use of extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal as a rescue therapy in a patient with severe COVID‐19 pneumonitis
Author(s) -
Tully R. P.,
Hopley N.,
Lawrence G.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
anaesthesia reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2637-3726
DOI - 10.1002/anr3.12072
Subject(s) - medicine , extracorporeal , prone position , hypercapnia , intensive care unit , mechanical ventilation , pneumonia , intensive care medicine , anesthesia , adverse effect , ventilation (architecture) , rescue therapy , pneumonitis , carbon dioxide removal , respiratory system , carbon dioxide , surgery , lung , mechanical engineering , engineering , ecology , biology
Summary We present a patient with severe COVID‐19 pneumonitis; poor respiratory compliance; dangerously high ventilator pressures; and hypercapnia refractory to conventional treatment including low tidal volume ventilation, neuromuscular blockade and prone position ventilation. Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal was used as a rescue therapy to facilitate safer ventilator pressures and arterial partial pressures of carbon dioxide. After 6 days of treatment, the patient had improved to the extent that the extracorporeal support was able to be weaned and the patient was decannulated from the device. Following a prolonged respiratory wean, the patient was subsequently discharged from the intensive care unit and then from the hospital to home with no adverse events related to the therapy.