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First Patients, Including a COVID-19 Patient, Treated with Abiomed’s Innovative ECMO Technology

Monday, December 21, 2020

DANVERS, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Abiomed (NASDAQ: ABMD) announces the first two patients in the world have been treated with the Abiomed Breethe OXY-1 System, a compact cardiopulmonary bypass system. The advanced ECMO technology pumps, oxygenates, and removes carbon dioxide from blood for patients whose lungs can no longer provide sufficient end organ oxygenation.

The system can help provide oxygenation to patients suffering from cardiogenic shock or respiratory failure from ARDS, H1N1, SARS, or COVID-19. When used with the Impella heart pump, it can unload the heart and oxygenate the body, a combination therapy known as ECpella.

The first patient is a 21-year-old woman at the University of Maryland Medical Center who sustained a lung injury and was placed on V-V ECMO with the Breethe system. She immediately began to improve and was able to ambulate daily, as seen in this short video.

After eight days, the patient was successfully weaned off Breethe support and is no longer in the ICU. The patient was treated by Bartley Griffith, MD, the Hales Distinguished Professor of Surgery at University of Maryland, School of Medicine and Daniel Herr, MD, chief surgical critical care services and medical director cardiac surgery ICU at University of Maryland Medical Center.

Read the press release from BusinessWire.