During VV ECMO, a surgeon may insert two tubes into two veins close to the heart. The blood drains through one tube into the artificial lung, which adds oxygen and pumps it back into the body ...

Image: Adobe Stock In a randomized clinical trial conducted in France, Schmidt and colleagues assessed 170 patients (median age, 51 years; 35% women) from 14 ICUs with severe ARDS on VV-ECMO for ...

Of these patients, 30 (7.2%) received venovenous (VV) ECMO—an advanced life support machine that takes over the function of damaged lungs. Most of the ICU patients—323 (77.8%)—were intubated ...