Doctors in AIIMS Bhubaneshwar saved the life of a 24-year-old army man – reviving his heart after it stopped for almost one-and-a-half hours through the advanced Extracorporeal Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (eCPR) procedure.

According to doctors, the young patient was brought in a critical condition due to heart failure last month. However, shortly after his arrival, he suffered a cardiac arrest. And despite 40 minutes of conventional CPR, no cardiac activity was detected, presenting a critical decision - to declare him dead or attempt the cutting-edge eCPR procedure.

It was then the decision to conduct the cutting-edge Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation - an advanced medical procedure that combines traditional CPR with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation technology was taken and the patient was revived.

Doctors said following the 40-minute procedure, the patient's heart resumed beating, albeit irregularly. However, in the next two days, his heart function improved significantly, and he was successfully weaned off ECMO as well. The team also managed several other life-threatening complications that he faced due to a lack of blood flow to his heart and brain.

"eCPR, while technically challenging, represents a promising advancement in the treatment of cardiac arrests traditionally deemed fatal. This success marks a milestone in Odisha's medical history," Dr. Srikant Behera, Intensivist and Adult ECMO specialist, told Times of India.

Defined as a life-saving technique to help treat patients of cardiac arrest or severe cardiac and pulmonary failure, eCPR works when a patient’s blood is diverted to an outside machine through catheters inserted into large blood vessels. The machine oxygenates the blood and pumps it back into the body, bypassing the heart and lungs.

According to doctors, the technique is used as a last-resort treatment option for those who experience refractory cardiac arrest, which is when there's no spontaneous circulation after 15-30 minutes of CPR.

While the basic technology behind eCPR has existed since the 1950s, when both CPR and the first heart-lung machines were developed, the ECMO process, during which a person’s blood is removed, oxygenated, and pumped back into their body, became simpler over time. However, in 2009 when physicians in Asia began using ECMO to treat people who were hospitalized with H1N1 influenza – the technology became more widely available.

Doctors say the use of ECMO during the COVID-19 pandemic further increased interest in the approach.

The process mostly involves catheter insertion into large blood vessels to divert the blood of the patient to the outside machine that oxygenates and pumps blood in return into the body. Thus, this bypasses the heart and lungs and gives both the organs some time to rest and recover. According to experts, eCPR is usually performed in specialized centers with trained personnel and technology, as it requires immediate initiation and precise management.

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