Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment of a H7N9-caused respiratory failure patient with mechanical valves replacement history: A case report

BACKGROUND: Patients with respiratory failure caused by H7N9 may benefit from veno-venous, veno-arterial, and veno-veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support. CASE SUMMARY: A 55-year-old male patient was suffering from H7N9-caused acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). He had a mechanical mitral and aortic valve replacement surgery and was using warfarin for anticoagulation. After prolonged mechanical ventilation, oxygen saturation was not improved. Veno-veno ECMO was then applied. After 16 days of extracorporeal life support, the patient successfully weaned from ECMO, with relatively good pulmonary recovery. CONCLUSION: This report demonstrates that ECMO support can help treating life-threatening diseases such as H7N9-associated ARDS. Because of his special mitral and aortic valve replacement surgery history and long duration of mechanical ventilation before ECMO, we report it as a separate case, hoping to provide some reference for ECMO treatment.