Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is mainly used to provide continuous extracorporeal respiration and circulation to patients with severe cardiopulmonary failure to maintain their lives.
The core components of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) are membrane lungs (artificial lungs) and blood pumps (artificial hearts), which can provide prolonged cardiopulmonary support to patients with severe cardiopulmonary failure, and win valuable time for critical care resuscitation.
Gibbon invented the artificial heart-lung machine in 953, and used the extracorporeal circulation technology for the first time in clinical cardiac surgery and achieved success, which made the artificial heart-lung machine system for prolonged cardiopulmonary support possible.
Membrane oxygenators appeared from 1960 to 1970, and anticoagulation control technology was perfected from 1965 to 1975, which prolonged the continuous use of cardiopulmonary diversion technology in the clinic. Membrane oxygenators separate the patient's blood and oxygenated gases with a semi-permeable membrane, which protects red blood cells and platelets and facilitates the safe operation of ECMO for a longer period of time.
Dr. Hill first used ECMO to save a 24-year-old male patient in 1971. The patient's respiratory failure worsened progressively due to multiple traumas, and after 75 hours of ECMO treatment, he was finally out of danger. The clinical application of ECMO technology has been carried out in many hospitals in succession, but ended due to the low success rate.
In 1975, Dr. Bartlett successfully treated a newborn with persistent fetal circulation with ECMO for the first time.
A 1993 survey by Zwushenberrger et al of 5,000 ECMO-treated children with respiratory failure showed a survival rate of 82%, compared with an 80% mortality rate with conventional treatment.
With the continuous development of medical technology, material technology, and mechanical technology, the support time of ECMO has been prolonged, and it is widely used in clinical critical emergency.
In 2022, the Extracorporeal Membrane Pulmonary Oxygenator (ECMO), jointly developed by the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Tsinghua University, the Institute of Precision Medicine, and the Tsinghua Changgeng Hospital in Beijing, was successfully tried out in small batch in prototype form, and animal pre-tests were completed successfully.