Early extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as bridge for central airway obstruction patients caused by neck and chest tumors to emergency surgery.

Central airway obstruction caused by neck and chest tumors is a very dangerous oncological emergency with high mortality. Unfortunately, there is few literature to discuss an effective way for this life-threating condition. Providing effective airway managements, adequate ventilation and emergency surgical interventions are very important. However, traditional airway managements and respiratory support has only limited effect. In our center, using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as a novel approach to manage patient with central airway obstruction caused by neck and chest tumors has been adopted. We aimed to show the feasibility: using early ECMO to manage difficult airway, provide oxygenation and support surgical procedure for patients with critical airway stenosis caused by neck and chest tumors. We designed a single-center, small sample size retrospective study based on real-world. We identified 3 patients with central airway obstruction caused by neck and chest tumors. ECMO was used to ensure adequate ventilation to emergency surgery. Control group cannot be established. Because traditional manner very likely led to death of such patients. Details of clinical characteristics, ECMO, surgery and survival outcomes were recorded. Acute dyspnea and cyanosis were the most frequent symptoms. All patients (3/3) showed descending arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO