WASHINGTON-Membrane oxygenation may make the difference in varicella pneumonia.
In a study of nine patients with the rare complication of chickenpox, prolonged extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was used by University of Michigan surgeons to save five of seven. Two improved without it by pressure-
controlled/inverse-ratio ventilation.
After a median of four days of mechanical ventilation, the seven patients were on ECMO for 2.8 to 56.5 days (median 12.8), and they were extubated after a median of nine more days, Dr. W. Anthony Lee told the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs meeting here. One died of progressive right-heart failure secondary to pulmonary hypertension, and the other died of overwhelming Pseudomonas sepsis.
Criteria for ECMO use included failure of conventional therapy, barotrauma, an A-a gradient exceeding 500, and a PO2/FiO2 ratio of less than 80. -Elsie Rosner
