HYDERABAD: Doctors treating Covid-19 patients note that during the second wave, the impact on lungs, especially among the young, has been far more than in the first wave. To overcome this, use of ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) procedure during early stages of infection is becoming a widely used procedure at private hospitals in Hyderabad. A significantly high number of patients affected by the second wave continue to remain hospitalised with extensive lung damage. It is in these cases that intensive respiratory interventions like ECMO and ventilators have become necessary. At present, KIMS has nearly 40-50 patients undergoing ECMO each day.
Many doctors believe that the second wave has been far more harmful for the lungs, with the virus hardening the lung tissues in a span of two weeks, unlike during the first wave. “Lung problems are now rampant, especially in younger people in their prime.
During the first wave, it was quite rare,” said Dr AGK Gokhale, senior consultant, heart and lung transplant surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad. The number of inquiries for ECMO at the hospital has risen to 5-8 calls every day. Doctors say ECMO is proving much more effective than intensive drug therapies and other antiviral therapies which bring in secondary infections like mucormycosis.
This is making some tertiary care centres opt for ECMO at an early stage of the infection to prevent irreversible lung damage. “During the first wave, doctors did not know much about the disease. Using ECMO/ventilators at an early stage helps at least 20 per cent of the patients recover,” said Dr Sandeep Attawar, director of thoracic organ transplants and assist devices at KIMS.