Background We present an unusual bleeding complication in a patient with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome in coronavirus disease 2019. Case presentation The patient, a 63-year-old Caucasian man, received venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support after rapid deterioration of lung function on day 6 after admission to hospital. After initial stabilization on lung protective ventilation and prone positioning, he started to develop mild bleeding complications until he went into occult profound hemorrhagic shock. Causative was a massive hemothorax of the right hemithorax with mediastinal shifting due to spontaneous bleeding from a pulmonal artery in a heavily remodeled right inferior lobe. Histopathological examination of the resected tissue showed signs of an organizing fibrinous pneumonia with focal parenchyma necrosis. After surviving a massive bleeding event caused by necrotizing pneumonia, the patient made a swift recovery and was discharged to rehabilitation 31 days after initial hospital admission. Conclusions The combination of severely elevated inflammatory markers and pulmonary hemorrhage should arouse suspicion of necrotizing pneumonia. In necrotizing pneumonia, the possibility of severe intrathoracic bleeding complications should be kept in mind if it comes to sudden deterioration of the patient. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13256-021-03032-9.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, ARDS, Case report, Necrotizing pneumonia, Hemothorax, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, Necrosis, hospital, Ventilation, lung, rehabilitation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, Shock, Deterioration, Lung function, Patient, bleeding, Complication, Mild, Hospital admission, Inflammatory marker, Admission, Protective, acute respiratory distress, Combination, prone positioning, Support, Hemorrhagic, supplementary material, tissue, syndrome, histopathological examination, pulmonary hemorrhage, shifting, initial, develop, caused, the patient, elevated, discharged, bleeding event, Causative, fibrinous pneumonia, 【제목키워드】 coronavirus, Patient, acute respiratory distress, acute respiratory syndrome, Spontaneous,