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CASE REPORT article

Front. Med.

Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1605965

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Monitoring in ARDS: Enhancing Mechanical Ventilation through Innovative TechniquesView all articles

Abdominal wall hematoma after prone ventilation during postpartum VV-ECMO: a case report and systematic review

Provisionally accepted
Guosen  HeGuosen HeFan  XuemeiFan XuemeiShuai  WangShuai Wang*Yu  DongYu Dong*
  • Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Hangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Pregnant women with ARDS are rare in themselves, and the rare complication of an abdominal wall hematoma during VV-ECMO is extremely aggressive. We report this rare case with the aim of informing clinicians to be alert to this serious complication and to share our treatment experience. Case presentation: A 42-year-old Chinese woman was infected with viral pneumonia at 26 weeks of gestation, which progressed to severe ARDS. After emergency termination of pregnancy, she was placed on VV-ECMO support and ventilated in the prone position. During this period, an unexplained drop in hemoglobin occurred, so she was withdrawn from the VV-ECMO support, and was diagnosed with an abdominal wall hematoma on CT examination, which was later cured with conservative treatment. Conclusions: Maternal prone abdominal wall hematoma found during VV-ECMO is rare and prone to adverse outcomes. We remind clinicians to be aware of this rare complication and prevent it.

Keywords: ARDS, Prone ventilation, VV-ECMO, Abdominal wall hematoma, case report

Received: 04 Apr 2025; Accepted: 17 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 He, Xuemei, Wang and Dong. 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:
Shuai Wang, Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Hangzhou, China
Yu Dong, Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Hangzhou, China

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