IKMO devices help fight COVID-19

Iman Abdullah Al Ali, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Health Authority revealed the use of ventilator technology outside the body in Dubai Hospital for Covid-19 patients, adding that nine cases benefited from the technology, specifically critical cases that cannot get a good amount of oxygen through ventilators.

The Health Authority added that the patient who does not get enough oxygen is transferred to the “IKMO” device, one of the latest international technologies, in the field of artificial respiration.

The IKMO is an industrial alternative to the respiratory system which has become unable to perform its functions well, due to a failure in the lungs. It receives blood outside the body, where carbon dioxide is extracted, and then the oxygen-saturated blood is pumped back to the patient’s body.

Dr Ashraf Al Hofy, a consultant and head of the intensive care department in Dubai Hospital and head of the infection control department in the hospital affirmed that there are five IKMO devices in the hospital, and 9 patients with Covid 19 benefited from it, after sustaining lung failure. Al Hofy added that the IKMO was disconnected from five cases successfully, and their condition has improved, and also the lung function greatly improved. Dr Al Hofy indicated that the device was also disconnected from cases which recovered, with the exception of one case, from which the device will be removed soon.

Dr Al Hofy pointed out that 4 corona patients are still on the IKMO device, noting that the device is used for cases that have complex lung problems, improves the rate of oxygen in the lung and helps in saving the patient, and resting the lung until the elimination of the corona virus which causes the lung function failure.

Dr Al Hofy said there are two types of IKMO device, the venous system which works by taking blood from the vein and return it to the vein again to be oxygenated outside the body, where the lung function is temporarily dispensed. This system is intended for cases having a major limbic failure.

He added that the patient takes about a week to two weeks to recover from pulmonary failure, as the device supports the lungs until they go normal.

As for the second type, Dr Al Hofy said it is an arterial system allocated to cases suffering from problems in the heart muscle, where the patient is placed on the device, and heart functions are dispensed until the muscle recovers. Dr Al Hofy noted that this system has not been used so far for Corona patients, because there are no cases with a sharp drop in the heart muscle.