The following is the summary of “A successful extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for severe status asthmaticus with an ultra-long cardiac arrest” published in the December 2022 issue of Emergency medicine by Zhai, et al.

Even if a patient with severe asthma and cardiac arrest is given traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the patient’s chance of passing away is still extremely close to 100% (CCPR). Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) is an alternative treatment that is becoming more common in conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CCPR) fails. On the other hand, the greatest length of time that “low-flow” conditions will persist has not been stated with great accuracy. 

In this article, researchers discussed a male patient who was 55 years old, suffered from severe asthma, and fell into cardiac arrest as a result. The patient was effectively treated with ECPR after undergoing ultra-long CCPR for one hundred minutes. He was taken off of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenator 72 hours after he was in, and he was taken off of the ventilator 14 days after he was admitted. He was discharged from the hospital without having suffered any permanent neurologic repercussions, thus he was able to leave the facility. 

In this particular case, the crucial function that ECPR performs as a treatment of asthma that is on the brink of being fatal is demonstrated by the fact that it was used as a last resort. After more than 60 minutes of CCPR, beginning ECPR on these patients while a bystander is monitoring them has the potential to still result in a favorable prognosis being achieved.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675722005599