Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a severe form of hypoxaemic respiratory failure. In selected patients with very severe disease, conventional ventilatory management alone may be insufficient and escalation to advanced extracorporeal support becomes the clinical question.
The protocol involves an extracorporeal circulatory support technique used as an adjunct to lung-protective mechanical ventilation. The full regimen — including patient selection criteria, parameters, and clinical sequencing — is contained in the structured protocol.
Full protocol available belowWe suggest the use of ECMO with lung-protective mechanical ventilation in selected patients with severe ARDS (GRADE Recommendation: weakly in favour).
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was suggested as an adjunct to protective mechanical ventilation for patients with very severe ARDS.
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