The Intensive Care Medicine Department is affiliated to the UMRS 1166-ICAN cardiovascular and metabolic diseases research unit of the Sorbonne University Faculty of Medicine. The department treats patients suffering from the most severe forms of cardiogenic shock and acute respiratory distress syndrome, in particular those requiring extracorporeal circulation via ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation).
The main research activities relate to the following areas: circulatory assistance in collaboration with the cardiac surgery department, acute respiratory distress syndrome, protective ventilation, pneumonia acquired under mechanical ventilation, cardiac arrest, myocarditis and haemostasis disorders induced by ECMO.
Key figures
The Intensive Care Medicine Department cares for around 1,300 patients a year, 650 to 750 of whom are in the intensive care unit. Almost half of these intensive care patients require circulatory or respiratory assistance via ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation).
A large proportion of these patients are admitted after the cardiac surgery department’s Mobile Circulatory Assistance Unit has travelled to an intensive care unit in the Paris region to install ECMO. The Heart Institute thus serves as the ECMO reference centre for the Ile-de-France region.
The main pathologies for which patients are referred to our department are :
- cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction, dilated cardiomyopathy, fulminant myocarditis, etc
- Heart transplantation
- Acute respiratory distress syndrome from any cause (bacterial pneumonia, influenza, COVID-19)
- Infectious endocarditis
Aims of the department
The Intensive Care Medicine Department works closely with the Department of Cardiology and the Department of Cardiac Surgery on both the clinical and research fronts, with the aim of maintaining clinical expertise in the fields of cardiogenic shock and ARDS and pursuing research projects in these areas.
Current projects
The main clinical research projects already under way are :
Other projects in the fields of antibiotic therapy, capillary leakage and haemostasis will begin shortly
- ANCHOR: randomised study to assess the benefit of veno-arterial ECMO in myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock
- LEVOECMO: randomised study to evaluate the value of Levosimendan for ECMO servicing
- PRONECMO: randomised study to evaluate the value of ventral decubitus in patients with severe ARDS on
- Veno-venous ECMO
