New Corona Securing Human Resources Artificial Cardiopulmonary Equipment ECMO Workshop August 16th 17:52
While the number of severely ill patients gradually increases due to the spread of new coronavirus infection, it is pointed out that there will be a shortage of human resources who can handle the artificial heart-lung machine "ECMO", which is said to be the last treatment. In Tokyo, a workshop was held for doctors and nurses to actually operate and learn.
The seminar was opened by "ECMOnet," which is made up of medical staff who treat using ECMO, and about 50 people including doctors and nurses from nine medical institutions in Tokyo participated.
ECMO is a device that acts as a temporary substitute for lung functions by sending oxygen directly to the blood drawn from the patient's body. It is used to treat patients who are infected with the new coronavirus and have the most severe symptoms. I will.
At the training session, doctors and nurses worked as a team to learn the procedure by actually passing water like blood into the ECMO device.
This treatment requires advanced technology such as preventing the formation of blood clots and carefully controlling the oxygen concentration so as not to damage the patient's lungs. We are checking for blood clots in the circuit through which it passes, and checking how to replace oxygen quickly when the part that functions as a lung that puts oxygen into the blood deteriorates and how to operate manually in an emergency. It was.
Currently, securing human resources who can handle the device has become an issue, and Dr. Takaki Shimizu of ECMnet, who served as a lecturer, said, "If the device stops, the patient will reach cardiac arrest in only about 2 minutes. It is of utmost importance to make a habit of making sure that people with knowledge have a thorough check for abnormalities in the equipment. We would like to continue the seminar to increase the number of human resources."