Optimizing Oxygenation: Prone Positioning for Severe ARDS Patients on ECMO

A randomized clinical trial involving 170 patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) undergoing venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) found that prone positioning did not significantly reduce the time to successful weaning from ECMO compared to supine positioning. The study, primarily consisting of COVID-19 patients, showed that successful ECMO weaning occurred in 44% of patients in both the prone ECMO group and the supine ECMO group. There were no significant differences in secondary outcomes such as mortality, ICU and hospital length of stay, and adverse events between the two groups.