The Use of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in the Surgical Repair of Bronchial Rupture

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been used successfully in critically ill patients with traumatic lung injury and offers an additional treatment modality. ECMO is mainly used as a bridge treatment to delayed surgical management; however, only a few case reports have presented the successful application of ECMO as intraoperative support during the surgical repair of traumatic bronchial injury. A 38-year-old man visited our hospital after a blunt chest trauma. His chest imaging showed hemopneumothorax in the left hemithorax and a finding suspicious for left main bronchus rupture. Bronchoscopy was performed and confirmed a tear in the left main bronchus and a congenital tracheal bronchus. We decided to provide venovenous ECMO support during surgery for bronchial repair. We successfully performed main bronchial repair in this traumatic patient with a congenital tracheal bronchus. We suggest that venovenous ECMO offers a good option for the treatment of bronchial rupture when adequate ventilation is not possible.