NUH patients benefit from staying awake while on life support

Avoiding a medically induced coma lowers risk of heart complications, other side effects

- Judith Tan

Critically ill patients in intensive care will now have the option of staying awake and breathing on their own while on life support, without the need for total sedation.

This will also give them a chance to interact with the healthcare team, reduce the chances of muscle shrinkage and allow for early rehabilitation.

Patients are often placed in a medically induced coma when undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo), a treatment for those with life-threatening heart and lung failure that keeps the blood pumping and oxygenated outside the body.

An alternative treatment, called awake Ecmo, has been performed successfully on three patients at the National University Hospital (NUH) since 2023.

"These patients are equally sick, but they are strong enough to get the Ecmo process started while they are conscious," said Adjunct Associate Professor K.R. Ramanathan, a senior consultant in the Cardiothoracic ICU at the National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS).

"Most of them are young and they have a single organ failure, such as the heart or lungs."