INHALATION INJURY TREATED WITH EXTRACORPOREAL CO2 ELIMINATION

A 38-year-old male sans admitted io the intensive care unit with a ful l-thickness burn involving 30 per cent of his total body surface area (TBSA) and severe inhalation injury. Respiratory failure developed wit hin 54 h and CO2 could not be eliminated, even by very invasive mechan ical ventilation. Because of tile patient's age and the minor extent o f the burned TBSA, we started extracorporeal CO2 elimination (ECCO2-X) and continued ECCO2-R for 30 days, when the patient was weaned from E CC. The clinical course during ECCO2-R was complicated by major bleedi ng from a thoracotomy tube, from the site of tangential excision and b y four septic episodes. Lung biopsy was performed twice on day 29 (dur ing ECCO2-R) and day 58 (after ECCO2-R) after admission and revealed b ronchiolitis obliterans without tendency to recovery. The patient died of sepsis with multiorgan failure on day 81 after trauma. (C) 1997 El sevier Science Ltd for ISBI.