Why the study?
Pulmonary tuberculosis rarely leads to severe ARDS with high mortality, and reporting on management such as prolonged veno-venous ECMO is limited.
Can prolonged veno-venous ECMO successfully treat severe ARDS and refractory hypoxemia secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis in a pediatric patient?
Can prolonged veno-venous ECMO successfully treat severe ARDS and refractory hypoxemia secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis in a pediatric patient?
Prolonged veno-venous ECMO can be a viable, life-saving intervention for severe ARDS with refractory hypoxemia secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis in pediatric patients, though complications like sepsis must be anticipated.
Prolonged VV-ECMO may enable recovery in severe PTB-ARDS with PH; leaves open optimal duration and selection in adolescents.
Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), although a common infection in LMIC countries, can rarely lead to severe ARDS, with reported mortality ranging between 22 and 79% in various studies.We report the case of a 15-year-old girl with severe ARDS and severe pulmonary hypertension due to PTB who was initiated on veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).She recovered without any major disability after a prolonged ECMO run of 50 days.The ECMO run was challenging due to the development of secondary sepsis and multi-organ dysfunction (MODS).The ECMO should be considered for the management of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with refractory hypoxemia due to severe PTB.Prolonged ECMO run and the corresponding challenges may have to be anticipated in these patients.
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Aramanadka et al. (2026) studied this question.
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