Wir überwinden Grenzen

Freiburg researchers show in a long-term study: patients who needed a heart-lung machine and have recovered often have a good quality of life

What are the long-term consequences of intensive care interventions for patients' quality of life? Physicians at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg have investigated this in patients who have temporarily received ECMO therapy due to severe lung failure. In extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, blood outside the body is enriched with oxygen and pumped back into the body. This allows lung function to be replaced for a certain period of time. In the long term, many of the 53 respondents had a good quality of life, comparable in some cases with the general population. Around 60 percent of those affected were able to return to their old job, while a further 20 percent were able to take up an alternative activity. The study was published in the journal Critical Care on November 29, 2021.

"ECMO therapy is our last hope for severe lung failure and at the same time a major intervention. The results of our long-term study are better than we had feared. Many of the recovered patients find their way back to their old lives," says PD Dr. Tobias Wengenmayer, senior physician at the Department of Internal Medicine III at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg. In their study, the researchers evaluated the situation of all 289 patients who received ECMO therapy in the Medical Intensive Care Unit of the Department of Internal Medicine III at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg between 2010 and 2019. 129 patients were able to leave the hospital recovered. An average of 53 people took part in the survey after four years.

Important perspective for relatives

"Knowing that patients can regain their original quality of life in the long term is of great importance for the treatment decisions of intensive care physicians and nurses, and especially for relatives," says Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christoph Bode, Medical Director of the Department of Internal Medicine III at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg.

ECMO therapies are also regularly used in the intensive care of COVID-19 patients. The study period ended before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. "It can be assumed that the results are at least partially transferable to ECMO therapy for COVID-19 patients. Further studies must now confirm this," says Wengenmayer.

Original title of the study: Long-term survival and health-related quality of life in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support.

DOI: 10.1186/s13054-021-03821-0

Link to the study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34844654/

Contact:
PD Dr. Tobias Wengenmayer
Senior Physician
Department of Internal Medicine III
Uniklinik Freiburg
Phone: 0761-270 35910
tobias.wengenmayer@uniklinik-freiburg.de