CASE REPORT article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Thrombosis and Haemostasis
This article is part of the Research TopicCase Reports in Thrombosis: 2025View all 14 articles
A Case of Severe Viral Pneumonia Complicated by Pulmonary Embolism Treated with Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Combined with Interventional Thrombectomy
Provisionally accepted
- Wuhan Sixth Hospital, Wuhan, China
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We report a case of severe H1N1 influenza pneumonia complicated by intermediate-high risk pulmonary embolism (PE) in a 70-year-old male presenting with dyspnea and fever. Initial chest CT demonstrated bilateral interstitial infiltrates and a throat swab was positive for H1N1 on PCR. Despite aggressive antiviral, antibiotic, and respiratory support, the patient developed refractory hypoxemia with progressively elevated D-dimer levels. Subsequent CT pulmonary angiography confirmed the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. As a rescue therapy, catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) was initiated under veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support. This intervention led to immediate hemodynamic and respiratory improvement, culminating in the patient's full recovery and discharge. This case highlights the critical need to suspect concomitant pulmonary embolism in severe pneumonia and demonstrates the therapeutic potential of ECMO-assisted CDT.
Keywords: Severe pneumonia, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, Pulmonaryembolism, Interventional thrombectomy, case report
Received: 06 Aug 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Hu, Zhang, Chen, Chen, Jiang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Cheng Jiang
Fajiu Li
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