Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Complex RUA Interdisciplinary Care

 Introduction
The therapeutic modality I will be discussing with this paper is Extracorporeal Membrane
Oxygenation, or ECMO. This therapeutic modality is one that requires specific training above
and beyond general entry-level nursing education as it deals with very complex technology and
is utilized in patients with a severe condition that could potentially be life-threatening and must
be handled delicately. An example of a case study in which this therapeutic modality would be
utilized is an 80-year-old female client who is experiencing myocarditis, or inflammation of the
heart muscle. The patient is frail and having difficulty breathing, fainting, experiencing chest
pain, and is feeling lightheaded and fatigued. After administrations of ACE inhibitors, diuretics,
and beta blockers have not helped improve her heart condition, the health care provider has
decided to focus on measures to ease the load off of the patient’s heart instead. This is when the
ECMO therapeutic modality will come into play as the provider has ordered for the patient to be
placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to allow her heart and lungs to rest and heal.
Explanation and Background
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation is essentially a machine that provides life support
for patients with illnesses that are so severe and even life-threatening that their heart and lungs
can no longer sustain the workload to continue to properly support their systems on their own
(American Thoracic Society, 2020). ECMO provides these individuals with a support by working
outside their bodies to pump blood from the patient to an artificial lung device where oxygen is
added, and the blood is artificially pumped back into the patient as their heart normally would.
There is no specific patient population that this therapeutic modality is used for, as it can be
utilized across all age ranges from pediatric to geriatric, however it is meant for people suffering
from certain illnesses or disorders. The patient population this modality would be aimed towards