Has COVID changed the game and what are the opportunities for Inspira’s ART device? Dr. Kassif, The Chairman of the Israeli ECMO Society
Has COVID changed the game and what are the opportunities for Inspira Technologies’ ART device?
Dr. Yigal Kassif, The Chairman of the Israeli ECMO Society
Awake ECMO is a specific treatment that the medical community has advanced its understanding and experience in due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The medical community has implemented this treatment in many extremely difficult cases, and now know that there would be a benefit in applying this treatment method in less complicated patients with better prognoses.
During COVID the medical community has also proven the use of partial-flow (or low flow) ECMO, which is something it believes will become more and more abundant. Partial-flow ECMO allows for partial gas exchange. However, low-flow devices do not currently provide appropriate oxygenation of the blood.
I absolutely believe that administering extracorporeal respiratory support as early as possible will reduce the treatment time and aggressiveness of mechanical ventilation. Reducing the aggressiveness of mechanical ventilation will allow the lungs to heal a lot faster. Further, this is something that has been proven as we now know that aggressive invasive mechanical ventilation, despite its ability to perform the action of oxygenating the blood and removing CO2 sufficiently, also causes long-term damage to the lung tissue.
ECMO is a last resort treatment for patients who are failing to respond or improve on mechanical ventilation. On the other hand, ART is designed to do the exact opposite. The ART is designed to be connected to patients earlier, providing partial support in order to prevent mechanical ventilation in the first place, and thus avoid the damage caused by aggressive mechanical ventilation. The low-flow treatment method introduced by the ART as a form of ECMO will allow patients to heal prior to being exposed to mechanical ventilation. This is the main difference.
