Kauvery Hospital Launches Advanced ECMO and Multiorgan Life Support Centre in Chennai
Chennai: Kauvery Hospital, Vadapalani, has launched the Kauvery Centre for ECMO & Advanced Life Support to provide specialised life-support services for patients with severe heart, lung and multiple organ failures.
The centre offers several types of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), including VV-ECMO for respiratory failure, VA-ECMO for cardiac failure, hybrid V-AV ECMO for combined heart and lung failure, and awake ECMO. It also provides ECMO-supported road and air transfers for critically ill patients referred from hospitals without ECMO facilities.
ECMO temporarily supports the heart and lungs when conventional treatments are insufficient, allowing medical teams to treat the underlying condition and assess the possibility of recovery.
The centre’s services are supported by a multidisciplinary team comprising cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists, pulmonologists, critical care specialists, nephrologists, haematologists, infectious disease specialists, perfusionists, ECMO-trained nurses and physiotherapists.
For patients requiring transfers, the specialised team travels to the referring hospital to assess the patient and initiate ECMO when clinically indicated. The patient is then transported to Kauvery Hospital, Vadapalani, under continuous ECMO support for further treatment.
The programme is led by Dr. K. Madhan Kumar, Director – ECMO & VAD and Senior Consultant in Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgery at Kauvery Hospital, Vadapalani. He also serves as president of the ECMO Society of India.
Dr. Madhan Kumar said managing patients on ECMO often requires simultaneous treatment for complications affecting other organs, along with specialised dialysis, fluid management and continuous monitoring.
Dr. Aravindan Selvaraj, Co-founder and Executive Director of Kauvery Group of Hospitals, said the centre brings together specialised medical expertise, technology and coordinated clinical care to manage complex critical-care cases.
