"Continuous Positive Airway Pressure on Venovenous extracorporeaL Membrane Oxygenation for Acute respIratory Distress syndrOme"

The CALMDOWN trial is a prospective, open-label, multicenter, comparative, controlled trial randomizing patients who received near apneic ventilation vs usual care on ECMO (ultra-protective lung ventilation). The study goal is to investigate the benefit of early apneic ventilation in the most severe forms of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) rescued by ECMO. Indeed, our hypothesis is that that early (near) apneic ventilation on venovenous ECMO for severe ARDS can enhance ventilator injury prevention and therefore reduce ECMO duration and mortality at Day 60.