Very low blood flow carbon dioxide removal system is not effective in a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation setting.

Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO R) is a low blood flow veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation technique that provides artificial blood CO removal. Recently, a new ECCO R system (PrismaLung), providing very low blood flow has been commercialized. The aim of this study is to report its use in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients needing an ECCO R therapy. Six severe COPD patients with acute exacerbation leading to refractory hypercapnic respiratory acidosis were treated with ECCO R therapy. Two different systems were used: a PrismaLung system and a conventional ECCO R device. The maximum blood flow provided by PrismaLung was significantly lower than that with the conventional ECCO R system. In three patients initially treated with PrismaLung, there were no improvements in pH, PaCO , or RR. Thus, the therapy was switched to a conventional ECCO R system in these three patients, and three others were treated from the outset by the conventional ECCO R system, providing significant improvement in pH, PaCO , and RR. The present retrospective study describes the first use of PrismaLung in severe COPD patients with acute exacerbation. When compared with a higher blood flow ECCO R system, our results show that this novel, very low-flow device is not able to remove sufficient CO , normalize pH or decrease respiratory rate.