Acute Respiratory Failure Managed via Inter-Facility Transport for Extracorporeal Life Support: A 3-Year Experience.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) to describe a successful design for a mobile lung rescue program, focusing on challenges and resources required to support such a program, and (2) report short-term outcomes for patients placed on venovenous extracorporeal life support (VV-ECLS) by a transferring team before inter-facility transport to a specialized extracorporeal life support (ECLS) center.

DESIGN

This retrospective review and analysis used patient chart review to collect outcomes data and resource demand.

SETTING

A single institutional experience in an academic center in the United States.

PARTICIPANTS

Patient selection targeted the 75 patients who were placed on VV-ECLS for acute respiratory failure at an outside institution by the authors' team before transport from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2017.

INTERVENTIONS

No intervention was made.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Average time for dispatch and transfer was 4 hours and 10 minutes for ground and 3 hours and 30 minutes for air transport (p = 0.029). Demand was highest in winter, with 61% (46/75) of patients presenting from November through April, and daytime, with 73% (55/75) occurring from 8 am to 8 pm. Demand increased during the study period, with 21 patients in 2015, 24 in 2016, and 30 in 2017. Mortality was low, with 72% of patients surviving to discharge.

CONCLUSIONS

Herein a successful mobile lung rescue program for transfer to a regional ECLS center is described. These findings demonstrate bed availability during high census and presence of a physician for duration of transport. These challenges can be overcome and successful implementation can be made with low mortality, supporting the development of regional ECLS centers.