The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading in Japan. The number of patients who need extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is expected to increase; however, the clinical characteristics of the patients who require and will benefit from ECMO are unclear.

On February 15, the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine (JSICM), the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine (JAAM), the Japanese Society of Respiratory Care Medicine (JSRCM), and the Japanese Society of PCPS/ECMO (JSPCPS/ECMO) launched “Japan ECMOnet for COVID-19” as a telephone consultation, treatment support, and a web-based real-time nationwide registry and surveillance system to discuss COVID-19 patients from over 400 hospitals who may be candidates for ECMO.

The initiative is led by more than 20 ECMO experts (Japan ECMOnet for COVID-19) from all over Japan.

These findings suggest that lung fibrosis was not severe for this subgroup of patients. The adoption of a platform for real-time discussion to guide the use of a scarce resource such as ECMO has been valuable to the Japanese doctors who are caring for critically ill patients with COVID-19 infection.

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