A Taiwan medical research team reported that the survival rate of patients who receive emergency treatment using the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) life-support system is twice as high as among those who are given conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) alone.
The study, conducted by a group of physicians at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) on patients aged 18 years old to 75 years old between 2004 and 2006, assessed the effects of ECMO after in-hospital cardiac arrest.
FAMOUS PHYSICIANS
The university presented the results of the research on Wednesday. Physicians who worked on the project include Chen Yih-sharng (陳益祥), Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Lu Hsi-yu (虞希禹) from the cardiac surgery department and Lin Jou-wei (林昭維) from the cardiology department of NTUH’s Yunlin branch.
BIG NAME
The study, entitled Cardiopulmonary resuscitation with assisted extracorporeal life-support versus conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation in adults with in-hospital cardiac arrest: an observational study and propensity analysis, was published in the July 7 edition of The Lancet, the world’s leading independent general medical journal, an NTUH spokesman said.
He said that the hospital had used the ECMO procedure on 132 patients and — as there have been only 267 recorded cases of EMCO use around the world over the past three years — the study has drawn international attention in medical circles.
The process involves the insertion of a catheter into the femoral artery/vein and circulating blood through a pump, heat exchange, and oxygenator before returning it to the body.
In the study, 113 of 975 patients who suffered in-hospital cardiac arrest and were given CPR for more than 10 minutes were enrolled in the conventional CPR group, while 59 were enrolled in the extracorporeal group.
BETTER RATES
The researchers found that among the patients who had received extracorporeal CPR the survival and discharge rate was 24 percent, while among those who received conventional CPR it was 11 percent.
Some 82 percent of cardiac arrest patients who were treated with the ECMO procedure recovered and returned to work within one year, the study showed.
Yang Pan-chi (楊泮池), the dean of NTU’s College of Medicine, said the study had altered the traditional medical definition that a patient may be pronounced dead if 30 minutes of CPR proves unsuccessful.
ADEQUATE OXYGEN
The study proves that is possible to save the life of patients with heart failure as long as their brains and other major organs are receiving an adequate supply of oxygen, Yang said.
This may serve to encourage others in the medical field to conduct research aimed at developing a simpler and cheaper way to supply oxygen to the brain and other organs in the treatment of trauma, he said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to