[Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation of a child with severe chemical pneumonia].

This case presents a thirteen months old child with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome after ingestion of lamp oil (hydrocarbon). Mechanical ventilation including high-frequency oscillation could not stabilise the course, and the child developed pneumothorax and emphysema. Treatment was changed to veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) on the third day. After nine days of ECMO and further two days of conventional ventilatory treatment he was extubated, and four months later the child presented with normal X-ray of the lungs and without any signs of disease.