Year in review 2013: Critical Care- respirology

Abstract

This review documents important progress made in 2013 in the field of critical care respirology, in particular with regard to acute respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Twenty-five original articles published in the respirology and critical care sections of Critical Care are discussed in the following categories: pre-clinical studies, protective lung ventilation – how low can we go, non-invasive ventilation for respiratory failure, diagnosis and prognosis in acute respiratory distress syndrome and respiratory failure, and promising interventions for acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Successful management of H1N1 related severe acute respiratory distress syndrome with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation

“…Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common cause of acute respiratory failure in critically ill patients. It is induced by an acute injury of the alveolar-capillary barrier (1). Until recently, the most accepted definition of ARDS was that proposed in 1994 by the American-European Consensus conference (AECC) which defined it as an acute condition characterized by bilateral pulmonary infiltrates and severe hypoxemia involving a PaO 2 / FiO 2 ratio ≤200 mmHg in the absence of evidence for cardiogenic pulmonary edema (2).…”