Patients with other types of ARDS (Acute respiratory distress syndrome) may have a median duration of ECMO for perhaps ten days or so, with a total length of stay in the ICU ward of a multi-speciality facility for approximately one month. However, early data for COVID-19 patients indicate that considerably longer duration of ECMO support would be needed for critical patients, with a median duration of 29 days in one study, and with other studies reporting use of ECMO for almost 3 to 6 weeks.
Cannula insertion for ECMO may include complications such as neurologic injury (from hypoxemia or thrombosis), bleeding, thrombocytopenia (i.e. heparin-induced or others), and also cannula-related vascular complications. Long-term complications occur in survivors of severe Covid related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and ECMO. The most common is the poor health-related quality of life, perhaps due to physical limitations, psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain.