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The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic outbreak. Patients with COVID-19 are prone to progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and even severe ARDS with ineffective mechanical ventilation, and an extremely high mortality. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) provides effective respiratory support and saves time for the treatment of severe COVID-19. The present study reports that a 31-year-old pregnant female infected by COVID-19, who suffered from fever, dyspnea, and rapid ARDS. The patient's pulmonary function gradually recovered by combining early mechanical ventilation and ECMO, and finally, this patient was successfully weaned from ECMO and the ventilator. No fibrosis lesions were found in the chest CT, and the patient recovered very well after leaving from the hospital for one month.

To summarize the clinical experience of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment for adult refractory cardiogenic shock.From January 2003 to January 2011, patients with refractory cardiogenic shock required veno-arterial ECMO by failure of conventional therapy and intra-aortic balloon pump counterpulsation therapy were retrospectively studied. Patients with severe traumatic brain injury, advanced malignancies and multiple organ failure were excluded. Patients were divided into weaned group (n = 31) and not weaned group (n = 23) according to the ECMO weaning.The duration of ECMO was 24.16 (14.12, 56.75) hours. Twenty-two out of 31 patients in the weaned group survived and were discharged, 9 patients died after successfully weaned from ECMO (5 due to multisystem organ failure, 2 due to reoccurred cardiogenic shock, 1 due to infectious shock and 1 due to disseminated or diffuse intravascular coagulation). Pre-ECMO mean arterial pressure, ejection fraction, the duration of ECMO were significantly higher while pre-ECMO blood lactate [(8.64 ± 3.17) vs. (14.44 ± 2.52) , P0.01], the duration of ROSC [ (16.70 ± 5.29) vs. (35.64 ± 5.89), P0.01] and multisystem organ failure [0 vs. 17.4% (4/23) , P0.05] were lower in weaned group than in not wean group.ECMO is an effective mechanical assistant therapy strategy for adult refractory cardiogenic shock patients. Timely applying this strategy on suitable patients is crucial for the success of ECMO. Cardiac function and reversibility of heart failure are key factors determine the fate of weaned or not weaned ECMO in adult refractory cardiogenic shock patients.