The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Duke Anesthesiology’s Satya Achanta, DVM, PhD, a six-month $199,962 grant to evaluate a novel intravascular membrane oxygen catheter in a translational swine model of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Every year, approximately 190,000 patients are diagnosed with ARDS in the United States and accounts for approximately 10% of all ICU admissions. According to Achanta, patients suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome require mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) depending on the severity of the lung damage. However, while both approaches are beneficial to some extent, they also can cause severe damage to the lungs and other organ systems.
“The novel intravascular oxygen catheter works by enabling oxygen gas exchange directly in the bloodstream, independent of the lungs. These catheters may be beneficial for ARDS patients with severe injury phenotype and could be deployed into patients relatively more easily than ECMO,” says Achanta, assistant professor in anesthesiology within the department’s Center for Translational Pain Medicine (CTPM). He says the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for more effective treatments for ARDS. “I’m excited to lead these translational studies at Duke University. I hope that this novel approach can save millions of people who are affected by ARDS each year in the United States and around the world.”