First Use of a New Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation System in COVID19-Associated Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome: The MobyBox Device.

ABSTRACT

In late 2020, during the second wave of COVID-19 in Germany, we started using the MobyBox, which is a novel fully pneumatically driven ECMO device, on a regular basis to meet the increasing demand for ECMO therapy. In this case series, we performed a retrospective chart review of seven patients with severe COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) requiring veno-venous (vv)-ECMO support with the MobyBox. During ECMO treatments we have observed no disadvantages in comparison to conventional ECMO systems. There were no system failures or adverse events directly attributable to the MobyBox system. Our data support that providing vv-ECMO with the MobyBox device is safe and feasible. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the MobyBox device might represent an advantage in terms of biocompatibility. Therefore, more data on this issue is needed to better understand how the pneumatically driven pump affects cellular blood components.