Miliary tuberculosis presenting as acute respiratory failure: treatment by membrane oxygenator and ventricle pump

A 58-year-old woman with high fever, dyspnea, rapidly progressive hypoxemia and opacification of the lung fields presented the clinical picture of catastrophic respiratory failure. Extracorporeal support of oxygenation using a membrane oxygenator and a new ventricle pump was initially successful. At autopsy, miliary tuberculosis was found to be the cause of this "shock lung like" syndrome.