Kauvery Hospital, Vadapalani, has launched the Kauvery Centre for ECMO & Advanced Life Support, offering a range of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) services for patients with severe heart and lung failure, as part of what it calls a critical-care approach that considers the heart, lungs and other organs together.

What the centre offers

According to the hospital, the services include:

• VV-ECMO for severe respiratory failure, which supports the lungs by oxygenating the blood and removing carbon dioxide.
• VA-ECMO for cardiac failure, which provides both respiratory and circulatory support when the heart cannot pump blood effectively.
• V-AV (hybrid) ECMO for combined heart and lung failure.
• Awake ECMO, which in appropriately selected patients lets them stay conscious while on life support.
• ECMO-supported road and air transfers.

For transfers, the hospital’s team travels to a referring hospital that has no ECMO facility, assesses the patient and starts ECMO support if clinically indicated. The patient is then moved to Vadapalani under continuous ECMO support for further treatment.

A team approach

The hospital says patients on ECMO often need support for other failing organs, careful fluid management and specialised dialysis. The centre brings together ECMO specialists, cardiothoracic surgeons and anaesthetists, perfusionists, cardiologists, pulmonologists, critical care specialists, nephrologists, haematologists, infectious disease specialists, ECMO-trained nurses and physiotherapists.

The programme is led by Dr K. Madhan Kumar, Director – ECMO & VAD and Senior Consultant, Cardiothoracic & Transplant Surgeon at the hospital, who is currently President of the ECMO Society of India.

“When severe heart or lung failure does not respond to conventional treatment, ECMO provides temporary life support, allowing doctors to treat the underlying condition and assess the potential for recovery,” Dr Madhan Kumar said.

Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, Co-founder and Executive Director of Kauvery Group of Hospitals, said: “Advanced critical care depends on the strength of the team behind it. The ability to manage complex conditions comes from bringing together the right specialists, technology and clinical judgement, particularly when a patient’s needs change rapidly.”

The release does not give patient numbers, outcomes, charges or how to request a transfer.