Background: To describe the use of pumpless extracorporeal interventional lung assist (iLA) for transportation of patients with severe life-threatening acute lung failure from tertiary hospitals to a specialized centre.
Methods: Retrospective analysis in eight patients with severe lung failure requiring interhospital transport, in whom implementation of an iLA system at a tertiary hospital for air/ground transportation was performed.
Results: After implementation of iLA, a rapid increase in CO2-elimination (Pa(CO2) before iLA: 8.92+/-2.9 kPa, immediately after implementation: 5.06+/-0.93 kPa, 24 h after implementation: 4.53+/-1.20 kPa [mean+/-SD], P<0.05) was observed and a significant improvement in oxygenation (Pa(O2) before iLA: 6.66+/-2.26 kPa, immediately after implementation: 10.39+/-3.33 kPa, 24 h after implementation: 10.25+/-5.46 kPa, P<0.05) was noted. During transport, no severe complications occurred. Four patients died during further treatment due to multiple trauma or multiple organ failure.
Conclusions: Due to ease of handling, high effectiveness and relatively low costs, iLA seems to be a useful system for treatment and transportation of patients with severe acute lung injury or ARDS suffering from life-threatening hypoxia and/or hypercapnia.