WW Yan, Arthur CW Lau, SM Lam, Kenny KC Chan, on behalf of the PYNEH ICU ECMO Team, Department of Intensive Care, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong, China; Intensetimes November 2012,17:2-10
Introduction
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a form of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) whereby an artificial circuit carries venous blood to a gas exchange device (the oxygenator) for oxygen enrichment and carbon dioxide removal. (The phrase ‘extracorporeal gas exchange’ might be a better term to describe this form of life support but ECMO is the term that has entered the professional vocabulary and gripped the public imagination.)
If blood is returned to the venous system then the system is described as a veno-venous ECMO (VV-ECMO), whereas if blood is returned to the arterial system the description veno-arterial ECMO (VA-ECMO) is used. ….
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