Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO): A Life Saver in Near-Fatal Asthma

Near-fatal asthma (NFA) is a life-threatening condition that represents the most severe clinical phenotype of asthma and can progress to fatal asthma. Patients with NFA do not respond adequately to conventional medical therapy and urgent intervention is needed to provide adequate oxygenation by invasive mechanical ventilation. While mechanical ventilation is a potentially life-saving intervention, it could cause lung injury, barotrauma, and dynamic hyperinflation due to high ventilator settings resulting in hemodynamic instability. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) provides full respiratory support with adequate gas exchange in patients with NFA and improves survival rate. We present a case of a young female patient who presented with NFA, and her clinical condition was worsening despite invasive positive pressure mechanical ventilation.