Ventilator-induced lung injury in ARDS

Abstract

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) develops in nearly 2 to 19 patients in every 100 critically ill patients, and the incidence of ARDS demands the implementation of mechanical ventilation to support the respiratory distress in the patients. However, mechanical ventilation is the primary cause that leads to ventilator- induced lung injury. A sequence of pathophysiological mechanisms involving volutrauma/barotrauma results in ventilator-induced injury in the later stages. In other words, ventilator-induced lung injury is an outcome experienced as a result of physiological and morphological alterations of the lungs due to mechanical ventilation. Among all factors, VILI primarily occurs as a result of improper ventilation, and further continuation of improper ventilation can even result in a secondary ventilator-induced lung injury. Furthermore, ventilator-induced lung injury can result in hypoxia, pulmonary edema, and multi-organ dysfunction and can even risk the life of the patient. This makes it essential to identify some effective strategies that can act as a measure to support protective ventilation to prevent ventilation-induced lung injuries. This review explores the clinical aspects of barotrauma to gather proper information about the aspects that contribute to ventilator- induced lung injury so that the recommendations can be suggested to prevent the increasing incidences of these injuries during ventilation. To conduct this review, an extensive search of multiple databases, including PubMed, ScienceDirect, Medline, etc., was conducted with the mentioned keywords, and 15 articles were shortlisted to be reviewed within this article. The findings of this review have indicated that protective ventilation is the most effective strategy that can support the survival of patients suffering from ventilator- induced lung injury. Protective ventilation not only helps in saving lives, but was also found to be a useful measure in preventing lung injuries experienced by the patients due to mismatch between actual and required optimum ventilator settings for the patient. Further findings of the review also indicate that ventilator-induced lung injuries could be prevented by ensuring the transpulmonary pressure is within the physiological range and the position of the patient is maintained supine for the majority of the time to support homogeneity in the distribution of the transpulmonary pressure.