Generating Evidence in ECMO Ventilation Strategies - A Pilot Study

This is a pilot, open label, pragmatic cluster-crossover clinical trial testing the feasibility and exploring the clinical impact of ICU-level ventilator management protocols as interventions in patients with acute respiratory failure requiring support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The overall objective is to inform the design of a future pragmatic, cluster-randomized clinical trial. The investigators will do this by completion of the following aims:

Aim 1: Measure clinician fidelity to ICU-level ventilator management protocols for patients with ARDS treated with ECMO. Hypothesis: Clinicians will have high fidelity to ICU-level ventilator management protocols for patients with severe ARDS on ECMO. To test this hypothesis, the investigators will conduct a pilot cluster-crossover study. The Duke medical ICU will be treated as a single cluster of patients. This cluster will be assigned to a standard lung-protective ventilation protocol for patients treated with ECMO, and then crossover to an ultra-lung protective ventilation protocol. The investigators will record if patient ventilator settings adhere to the assigned protocol at the time of treatment. The proportion of patients whose ventilator settings adhere to the assigned protocol will be compared to an a priori defined threshold to indicate feasibility.

Aim 2: Explore the clinical impact of using different ventilator management protocols for patients with ARDS treated with ECMO. Hypothesis: Patients managed with standard lung protective ventilation will have shorter durations of ECMO and mechanical ventilation when compared with patients managed with ultra-lung protective ventilation. To test this hypothesis, the investigators will measure the duration of ECMO and mechanical ventilation for all patients enrolled in the study. The investigators will perform an exploratory analysis examining differences in these outcomes between the two treatment groups.