• In a clinical trial, early initiation of cytokine adsorption in patients with severe COVID 19 and venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) did not lower serum IL-6 and had a negative effect on survival.
• A single-centre, open-label, randomised, controlled trial was conducted to assess cytokine adsorption in adult patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia requiring ECMO.
• In the results, median IL-6 reduced from 357.0 pg/mL to 98.6 pg/mL in patients randomly assigned to cytokine adsorption and from 289.0 pg/mL to 112.0 pg/mL in the control group after 72 h.
• Study findings also suggested that cytokine adsorption should not be used during the first days of ECMO support in COVID 19.
• The timing of initiation and duration of cytokine adsorption and replacement intervals plays an important role. 

Resource

1. Supady A, Weber E, Rieder M, et al. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. May 14, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(21)00177-6