Evidence-Based Practices for Acute Respiratory Failure and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a serious and complex clinical problem that often threatens the lives of patients. Emerging clinical data suggest that the survival of patients with this disorder may have improved during the last two decades, presumably because of advances in supportive medical care. Among the supportive therapies used to treat patients with ARDS, none is more ...

Acute respiratory distress syndrome.

INTRODUCTION Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterised by lung inflammation with severe hypoxia, which usually develops over 4-48 hours and persists for days or weeks. The main causes of ARDS are infections, aspiration of gastric contents, and trauma. Between a third and a half of people with ARDS die from the disease, but mortality depends on the underlying cause. Some surviv...

Acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS SYNDROME (ARDS) is a clinical condition characterized by impaired gas exchange as a result of the accumulation of edema in the alveolar space. The clinical management of ARDS patients includes mechanical ventilation with high oxygen concentrations. Mechanical ventilation alleviates the work of breathing and hypoxemia while allowing time for the lungs to recover from t...

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

VALID AND RELIABLE DEFINItions are essential to conduct epidemiological studies successful ly and to facilitate enrollment of a consistent patient phenotype into clinical trials. Clinicians also need such definitions to implement the results of clinical trials, discuss prognosis with families, and plan resource allocation. Following the initial description of acute respiratory distress syndrome...