Successful ECMO trial
Press Release 1031
15 September 2009
INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY: ECMO trial signals success for Leicester's Hospitals
A Leicester heart surgeon has led the first ever UK trial into the effectiveness of ECMO for adults.
Giles Peek is a consultant in cardiothoracic surgery and ECMO at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. He and the Glenfield ECMO team worked with research teams lead by Diana Elbourne (London School of Hygiene) and Miranda Mugford (University of East Anglia) on the study which screened 766 patients from 148 hospitals across the UK.
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) uses heart-lung machine technology to provide prolonged support of the lungs in the intensive care unit (an average of 9 days in the CESAR study) for patients who are deteriorating despite optimal conventional ventilator management. ECMO allows the toxic effects of ventilation caused by high pressure and high oxygen concentrations to be reduced thereby giving the lungs a chance to recover.
The CESAR Trial examined whether patients with severe acute respiratory failure would benefit better from Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) compared with a conventional ventilator system.
The researchers looked at 180 adult patients with severe but potentially reversible respiratory failure. They were randomly selected to either continue on a conventional ventilator or to be transferred to Glenfield Hospital for the consideration of ECMO. The team needed to use ECMO in ¾ of the 90 patients allocated to treatment at Glenfield and found that 63% of these 90 patients survived to 6 months without disability compared to only 47% of patients who continued on a conventional ventilator. This is equivalent to one extra survivor for every 6 patients treated.
The ECMO centre at Glenfield is the only UK hospital with an adult ECMO programme.
Mr Peek said: “The CESAR Trial has shown that ECMO is a clinically effective treatment for adult patients with severe but potentially reversible respiratory failure, and in addition it is likely to be cost effective when compared to other high tech treatments such as lung transplantation.”
As ECMO can be used to treat any form of potentially reversible respiratory failure it has already been used to good effect to treat patients with swine flu both at Glenfield and worldwide. We expect that ECMO will be an essential weapon in the winter resurgence of the swine flu pandemic. The CESAR Trial is being published online in the Lancet on Wednesday 16th September.
ENDS
Mr Peek is available for interview Tuesday afternoon and first thing Wednesday morning. Please contact Helen in the communications office on 0116 258 8592 if you would like to speak to him.
Helen Heald
Communications Officer
0116 258 8592
Mobile: 07921 545809