Preeclampsia While on Venovenous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Support

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presented many challenges during pregnancy. Complications of COVID-19 in pregnancy were abundant, with higher rates of respiratory failure and preeclampsia. We present here a case of a woman at 24 weeks gestation requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for refractory hypoxic respiratory failure and her management for presumed preeclampsia. Current methods to diagnose preeclampsia can be severely impacted by comorbid COVID-19 infection as well as the treatment with ECMO support. This is the first report detailing the challenges of using standard diagnostic criteria for diagnosis of preeclampsia while on ECMO and highlights the potential for and need for further research to identify and guide management of possible preeclampsia/eclampsia.

J Clin Gynecol Obstet. 2022;11(4):117-120
doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jcgo829