[ad_1]
Although it is a more limited resource than the artificial ventilator, it is encouraging to know that 6 or 7 out of 10 patients treated with it improve.
The inflammation and damage caused by the new coronavirus in the lungs of the most seriously ill patients may even cause the ventilator to be insufficient, so for some of these cases there is a last treatment alternative: a kind of artificial lung.
Of course, it is an even more limited resource and requires trained personnel and centers of excellence for its use.
“We have to offer it with the utmost certainty that it will indeed save lives. So, patients who have a serious lung injury, which is life-threatening, but who for other circumstances do not have so much risk of dying, that if they recover their lungs they will survive, those patients are the candidates, “explains Leonardo Salazar , of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization.
In Colombia there are around 33 of these machines in use and the institutions with the most experience, according to the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) – Latin American chapter, are: the CardioinfantiI Foundation and the Shaio Clinic in Bogotá, the Valle De Foundation Lili In Cali, Cardiovid in Medellín and the Cardiovascular Foundation of Bucaramanga.
The Pan American Health Organization included this treatment in its protocol for managing patients with COVID-19.
The organization that brings together specialists in the subject in Colombia has already contacted the government and is waiting for this treatment to be considered within the management consensus so that the option is centralized and available for the most severe cases that become candidates.
Also read:
