Abstract
We reported two cases of respiratory failure caused by blunt trauma treated with Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) . Case 1 was 18 year-old man who had a motorcycle accident with splenic rupture, multiple bowel perforation, and severe lung contusion. He demon-strated severe respiratory failure 10 hours after surgery in spite of maximum ventilatory support, so we had to employ ECMO to the patient. But 47 hours after the start-ing the ECMO we had to discontinue it because the patient showed the signs of brain death, which was confirmed later by CT. Case 2 was 20 year-old man who had a laceration of right main bronchus caused by motor-cycle accident. Large amount of air leakage was found from right main bronchus and there were some difficulty in ventilation with conventional treatment. The ECMO was started after right middle and lower lobectomy, and the patient weaned from ECMO successfully at 115 hours of ECMO treatment. There are controversies appling ECMO to the traumatic patient. Intracranial hemorrhage is one of the most important risk factors for the ECMO. We conclude that if the bleeding is controllable, ECMO is one option for severe lung contusion caused by traffic accident.
