Lung Failure in Swine-Flu Patients May Spur Life-Support Demand
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Machines that pump blood through an artificial lung helped save dozens of critically ill swine flu patients, doctors in Australia and New Zealand found.
The finding, based on the first population-wide study of the use of lung-bypass machines in the influenza pandemic, suggests Northern Hemisphere nations can expect a winter surge in demand for life-support equipment made by companies including Getinge AB and Medtronic Inc.
The lung-bypass technique was used in 68 flu patients in both countries who developed such severe lung damage that they weren’t able to breathe, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association yesterday. Almost half of those given the procedure were able to walk out of the hospital after suffering acute respiratory distress syndrome, a condition fatal in up to 48 percent of cases.
“We have a gut feeling that these patients would have died more frequently and that we did improve the likelihood of their survival,” said Andrew Davies, deputy director of intensive care at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital and the study’s lead author.
From June 1 to Aug. 31, the procedure was used in New Zealand and Australia on patients with confirmed or suspected swine flu at a rate of 2.6 per million people.
An additional 133 flu patients received mechanical ventilation, but not the lung-bypass procedure known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO. The study didn’t include a case-controlled comparison of patient outcomes in both groups.
‘Dreadfully Sick’
“They were dreadfully sick as a bunch when we put them on ECMO, and you would have thought that group of patients would have had a higher mortality,” Davies said.
The average age of patients with the new H1N1 strain who received ECMO at 15 intensive care sites in Australia and New Zealand was 34.4 years, the doctors said.
As of Sept. 7, 48 of the 68 ECMO patients had been discharged from the intensive care unit, of whom 32 had been discharged from the hospital and 16 were still hospitalized. Fourteen patients had died and six remained in the ICU, two of whom were still receiving ECMO, according to the study.
In comparison, only four patients received ECMO for acute respiratory distress syndrome across the 15 ICUs the previous winter in Australia and New Zealand. The incidence of ECMO in the three months ended Aug. 31, 2008, was 0.15 cases per million people.
As swine flu spreads in the Northern Hemisphere winter, the U.S. might expect to provide ECMO to about 800 H1N1 patients and the European Union to 1,300 patients, the authors said.
The finding, based on the first population-wide study of the use of lung-bypass machines in the influenza pandemic, suggests Northern Hemisphere nations can expect a winter surge in demand for life-support equipment made by companies including Getinge AB and Medtronic Inc.
The lung-bypass technique was used in 68 flu patients in both countries who developed such severe lung damage that they weren’t able to breathe, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association yesterday. Almost half of those given the procedure were able to walk out of the hospital after suffering acute respiratory distress syndrome, a condition fatal in up to 48 percent of cases.
“We have a gut feeling that these patients would have died more frequently and that we did improve the likelihood of their survival,” said Andrew Davies, deputy director of intensive care at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital and the study’s lead author.
From June 1 to Aug. 31, the procedure was used in New Zealand and Australia on patients with confirmed or suspected swine flu at a rate of 2.6 per million people.
An additional 133 flu patients received mechanical ventilation, but not the lung-bypass procedure known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO. The study didn’t include a case-controlled comparison of patient outcomes in both groups.
‘Dreadfully Sick’
“They were dreadfully sick as a bunch when we put them on ECMO, and you would have thought that group of patients would have had a higher mortality,” Davies said.
The average age of patients with the new H1N1 strain who received ECMO at 15 intensive care sites in Australia and New Zealand was 34.4 years, the doctors said.
As of Sept. 7, 48 of the 68 ECMO patients had been discharged from the intensive care unit, of whom 32 had been discharged from the hospital and 16 were still hospitalized. Fourteen patients had died and six remained in the ICU, two of whom were still receiving ECMO, according to the study.
In comparison, only four patients received ECMO for acute respiratory distress syndrome across the 15 ICUs the previous winter in Australia and New Zealand. The incidence of ECMO in the three months ended Aug. 31, 2008, was 0.15 cases per million people.
As swine flu spreads in the Northern Hemisphere winter, the U.S. might expect to provide ECMO to about 800 H1N1 patients and the European Union to 1,300 patients, the authors said.
Comment
"Destroying the New World Order"
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!
Latest Activity
- Top News
- Everything
A Prelude to WW III ? It Seems There We Are Trailblazing Idiocy into More Blood and Destruction!
They're rolling out the 25th Amendment trying to stop Joe Biden from insanely thrusting the US in a…See More
Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]
DW Description: Chris Langan is known to have the highest IQ in the world, somewhere between 195 and 210. To give you an idea of what this means, the average...
RFK Jr. Appoinment Rocks the World of the Federal Health Agncies and The Big Pharma Profits!
The Appointment by Trump as Secretary of HHS has sent shockwaves through the federal government…See More
Somewhere in California.
Tom Waites and Iggy Pop meet in a midnight diner in Jim Jarmusch's 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes.
Whatever Happened?
Whatever Happened? The unsung heroes will go about their dayRegardless of the welcome they've…See More
"cheeki kea Nice work! Thank you! "
"Chin up folks, once the low hanging fruit gets picked off a clearer view will reveal the higher…"
"Your right LP it's insane for sure and hopefully improbable, keeping an open mind. Checking…"
"The white dude in the center is Bill Gates!!! "
© 2024 Created by truth.
Powered by
You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!
Join 12160 Social Network