Piedmont Atlanta Hospital Reaches Milestone for Use of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

ATLANTA, June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Piedmont Atlanta Hospital recently placed its 2,000th patient on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). ECMO is an advanced therapy for patients with severe cardiac or respiratory failure. It is a form of life support that temporarily performs the functions of a patient's heart and lungs to support other vital organs while the heart and lungs heal.

ECMO is similar to heart-lung bypass that a patient might be placed on during surgery, but it can be used for longer recoveries from severe cardiac or respiratory conditions, such as heart attacks or COVID-19. The machinery circulates a patient's blood through an external oxygenator to remove carbon dioxide, then returns the oxygenated blood to the patient's body through tubing in the neck or groin.

"This indispensable technology allows us to save the lives of some of our sickest patients when conventional therapies have failed," said Peter Barrett, M.D., director of Piedmont's ECMO program and medical director of the Cardiac Critical Care Units. "There is a highly trained multidisciplinary team behind the use of ECMO for each patient, and this milestone is a reflection of their seamlessly coordinated care."

ECMO technology was critical to the recovery of many patients with severe COVID-19 during the pandemic. Piedmont has one of the largest ECMO programs in the world and was the number one site with completed data in the international ECMOCARD study, a large trial examining the effects of ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in the critical care setting on patients suffering from the combination of COVID-19 and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).

Ten years ago, the adult ECMO program at Piedmont Atlanta was the first in Georgia to be recognized as a Center of Excellence by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization.

To learn more about ECMO at Piedmont, visit piedmont.org/ECMO.

SOURCE Piedmont Healthcare