As of October 17th the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) caused a pandemic disease (coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19) 40 million people worldwide, with almost one million deaths.

Although most patients have an uncomplicated clinical course, the more severe forms of COVID-19 require hospitalization and intensive care unit admission.

Conventional high-flow oxygen therapy, non-invasive and/or invasive mechanical ventilation, often in combination with prone positioning, have all been reported to be effective in the majority of patients. However, in severe cases, life-threatening, refractory hypoxemia may occur.

Secondary infections, myocardial disease involvement and a hypercoaguable state with/without pulmonary embolism may also contribute to the complexity of treating these critically ill patients [3,4,5]. In such cases rescue therapy may be required.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (www.elso.org) and others have advocated the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for patients with severe cardiorespiratory failure.

Few patients in China received ECMO support in the early phase of the pandemic and the mortality rate among these patients was high.

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