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Methodist Healthcare

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is an advanced life support option and medical technique that supports heart and lung function if you're experiencing heart failure, respiratory failure or cardiogenic shock.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment in San Antonio

When your heart and lungs need rest to regain proper function, there are options available to help you.

ECMO is a form of advanced life support for if you or a loved one is experiencing severe cardiac or respiratory failure. At Methodist Healthcare, our dedicated cardiopulmonary experts offer this advanced treatment, which supplies oxygen to your blood and helps pump the blood back into the body.

What is extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

A pump circulates blood through a circuit of tubing to support heart function, as well as through an oxygenator that acts as an artificial lung. This unique and highly specialized ECMO program helps patients of all ages with life-threatening diseases that impair heart and lung function.

Program details

Methodist Heart and Lung Institute's distinctive ECMO program is the primary ECMO provider for one of the largest regions in Texas and fastest growing areas in the U.S. We operate the only ECMO program that reaches as far west as El Paso and as far south as McAllen.

We are honored that our commitment to build an exceptional program has been recognized with the ELSO Gold Level Center of Excellence Award—the most prestigious designation in critical care by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. We take pride in the responsibility we have to save lives, striving to care for the sickest of patients that other facilities are not equipped to manage. Every ECMO procedure could provide a second chance for a patient to return home to their family, and we are dedicated to offering that chance for those who need it.

Who may qualify for ECMO

ECMO treatment is a consideration for any patient with severe respiratory failure and a potentially reversible etiology (pneumonia, aspiration, volume overload).

ECMO treatment is also a consideration for any patient with severe cardiac failure.

Patients who require ECMO must be addressed in a very narrow window of time. Our highly trained ECMO care team is always available 24/7 to support these emergent cases. They also have a very unique combination of expertise, specializing in both ECMO procedures, as well as cardiac and critical care with complex, unstable patients.

If you think the Methodist Heart and Lung Institute ECMO Program might be right for your patient, please call to speak to an ECMO clinician at (210) 575-ECMO (3266).

"ECMO gave me my life back."

Justin Moreno was otherwise healthy and still in his 20s when he suddenly had signs of heart failure. Learn how ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation), the most advanced form of life-support, gave Justin a second chance.

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