PEEP or No PEEP — Lung Recruitment May Be the Solution

Abstract

The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized by inflammatory lung injury with alveolar flooding and abnormalities in surfactant function. ARDS (a subcategory of acute lung injury) is associated with the collapse of peripheral lung units, pulmonary infiltrates, stiff lungs, and hypoxemia.¹ The syndrome is both common (with an incidence of about 80 cases per 100,000 population every year) and lethal (with a death rate of more than 38 percent) in a community population of patients with acute lung injury.² Patients with severe ARDS invariably require mechanical ventilation to decrease the work of breathing and to improve oxygen transport. An . . .