Safety and Feasibility of Early Physical Therapy for Patients on ECMO

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov August 15, 2020

With a highly trained multidisciplinary team and a focus on restoring function, it is feasible and safe to deliver early rehabilitation including standing and ambulation to patients on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support even those with femoral cannulation sites with veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

We reviewed the medical records from physical therapy, perfusion, and intensivists to obtain the number and type of physical therapy interventions and discharge status; extracorporeal membrane oxygenation type and description of support, cannulation sites; and risk management details of adverse effects, if any.

Of 254 patients supported on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, 167 patients (66.7%) received a total of 607 physical therapy sessions while on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support.