[Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Lung Transplantation]

Multiple situations necessitate extracorporeal membrane oxygenation( ECMO) during lung transplantation. ECMO can also be used as a bridge to lung transplantation. We describe five cases in which bridging ECMO was successfully utilized, including three cases of living donor lung transplantation. ECMO can also be used as an alternative to cardiopulmonary bypass for intraoperative support during lung transplantation, and postoperatively, primary graft dysfunction, rejection, and infection can cause reversible respiratory failure which warrants ECMO. It can also be used for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension in the early postoperative period to help their hearts adjust to new circulation. Eight patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension who underwent lung transplantation at our institu-tion received intraoperative and early postoperative ECMO support and their postoperative courses were uneventful. In this report, we review the indications for ECMO and the type of ECMO required for each of the various issues that can arise during lung transplantation, based on the literature and our experiences.