An interesting case summary of tubercular pneumonia masquerading as viral pneumonia kept on extra-corporeal membrane...

Mortality in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis remains high, especially in those who develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We herein, report a case of 40 year old female, with ARDS due to severe pulmonary tuberculosis. She was admitted in the intensive care unit of a tertiary care centre. Owing to very poor ABG report, she was intubated and put on Mechanical ventilator support. Bronchoscopy was performed and BAL was extracted, which showed no growth. Further deterioration of gas exchange prompted the decision to put her on ECMO. During her stay on ECMO, she developed massive inta-alveolar hemorrhage following which repeated bronchoscopic interventions were done to remove blood clots. BAL extracted on day 4 and day 8 showed growth of A. baumannii and K. pneumoniae respectively. But BALGeneXpert on day 8 came out to be positive for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and subsequently ATT was added to her treatment regimen. Her alveolar hemorrhage continued to worsen and subsequently ECMO was removed. After 12 days of hospitalization, she went on to develop bradycardia and could not be rescued. Though the patient's life was lost, this case provided many insights on the use of ECMO in the management of ARDS due to Pulmonary tuberculosis and it should be considered as one of the treatment options.