Extracorporeal life support for status asthmaticus

Status asthmaticus is a life-threatening form of reactive airway disease, refractory to initial control with ordinary medical measures, sometimes requiring mechanical ventilatory assistance. In this report, we describe a patient whose bronchospasm could not be controlled with conventional measures, with severe respiratory acidosis (PaCO₂ consistently >100 mm Hg), who was successfully supported with extracorporeal life support (ECLS). During ECLS, arterial blood gas values rapidly returned to normal, and bronchospasm resolved during the subsequent 24 h. The patient was extubated hours later, and discharged to home 4 days later, neurologically normal. We believe that this represents the first application of this technology to this disease in an adult patient.