Culmination of an Era in Research on the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

The acute respiratory distress syndrome is a form of noncardiogenic pulmonary edema that results from acute damage to the alveoli. Most patients with this syndrome will die if they do not receive supplemental oxygen and assisted ventilation. By reversing life-threatening hypoxemia and alleviating the work of breathing, mechanical ventilation buys time for the lungs to heal. Mechanical ventilation can also cause lung damage by several mechanisms, including alveolar rupture and alveolar hemorrhage, especially when high airway pressures are used for ventilation.Initially, the diffuse shadows seen on chest x-ray films in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome led clinicians . . .