Dr. Benjamin Seeliger is a researcher at BREATH, the Hannover site of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), working on, amongst other things, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This is an inflammatory disease of the lung which, as a rule, occurs due to another disease and results in severe to fatal development. In his research, Dr. Seeliger is cooperating with the Universitätsspital Zürich and the University Clinic in Bonn in the BonHanZa ARDS Study Group. Together, they have recently investigated whether there is a difference in the occurrence of intracranial bleeding during ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) therapy between COVID-19 patients and those with other viral diseases.
In more than 200 patients who, due to an ARDS, received ECMO therapy, Dr. Seeliger and his colleagues analysed various parameters such as  oxygenation, inflammation values and the occurrence of intracranial bleeding. Although the severity of the disease was comparable between those affected with COVID-19 and without COVID-19 (mainly influenza), the risk of intracranial bleeding with COVID-19 was almost six times greater. This bleeding was, however, a strong predictor of death on the intensive care ward. COVID-19 can therefore be considered to be an independent risk factor for the occurrence of intracranial bleeding during ECMO therapy.  One of the next questions to be solved is whether adaptation of the anti-coagulation strategies can lessen the occurrence of bleeding. The multicentric work of Dr. Seeliger and his colleagues has been published in the journal „Critical Care Medicine“  and awarded the Research Prize for Intensive Care at the Annual Meeting of the DGIIN.  
We sincerely congratulate Dr. Benjamin Seeliger on receiving this prize and wish him and his team much success in their future research. 
 

Text: BREATH/ AB

Foto: MHH/ Figil