Veno-venous ECMO-assisted orthopedic stabilization for polytrauma with severe ARDS and refractory hypoxemia: a case report

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Source: Frontiers Medicine

Original: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2025.1688556...

Published: 2026-01-23T00:00:00Z

A 23-year-old man with polytrauma sustained bilateral femoral fractures, a Gustilo IIIB open tibiofibular injury, and left radius-ulna fractures. He had severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with refractory hypoxemia (PaO2/FiO2 40.5 mm Hg). One hour after the injury, he was started on veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO), which lasted a total of 144 hours. Surgical stabilization of fractures was performed on day 5 after physiological optimization with heparin anticoagulation and dynamic modulation of ECMO parameters. Lactic acidosis resolved from a peak of 5.0 mmol/L on day 1 to 1.8 mmol/L before surgery. The patient was successfully weaned from ECMO on day 6 and at 2-month follow-up achieved an SMFA score of 28.1 and a walking speed of 1.2 m/s. The case demonstrates the feasibility of a multidisciplinary protocol to manage oxygenation and hemorrhage control in patients with severe ARDS.