THE FIRST HYBRID SURGERY IN CHINA: REPAIR OF TRACHEAL LACERATION WITH EXTRACORPOREAL MEMBRANE OXYGENATION

Qingyong Cai^{1, *}, Liyong Li¹, Jinjiao Zhang¹, Lei Zhang¹, Mingqiang Shen¹, Yun Huang², Qihe Liu³, Yan Yang³, Qianqian Wen³ 

Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510900, PR China - ²Department of Prevention and Healthcare, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510900, PR China - ³Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563099, PR China

Objective: In this example, the patient accidentally fell from 8 meters high, causing trauma to the patient’s chest with tracheal laceration and ‘white lung’ in both lungs. The patient lost respiratory function and was using a breathing machine with 100% pure oxygen while still maintaining 80% oxygen saturation. Routine tracheal intubation under general anaesthesia could potentially cause patient death during the operation. The objective was to assess the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in surgery to repair the patient’s tracheal laceration.

Methods: The thoracic surgery department applied hybrid surgery combined with ECMO to rescue the patient. With the support of ECMO, the patient’s intraoperative vital signs were stable, blood oxygen saturation was 100% and the surgery for repairing the laceration with fibreoptic bronchoscopy was successfully completed.

Results: The patient recovered and was discharged from hospital. 

Conclusion: ECMO has successfully treated many critically ill COVID-19 patients during the pandemic, but this is the first time in China that ECMO has been applied to patients suffering from multiple critical injuries such as chest trauma and tracheal laceration.