Time to Extubation Among ARDS Subjects With and Without COVID-19 Pneumonia.

Background: Pneumonia from COVID-19 that results in ARDS may require invasive mechanical ventilation. This retrospective study assessed the characteristics and outcomes of subjects with COVID-19-associated ARDS versus ARDS (non-COVID) during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The primary objective was to determine whether mechanical ventilation duration differed between these cohorts and identify other potential contributory factors.

The Nature of Recruitment and De-Recruitment and Its Implications for Management of ARDS.

Recruitment maneuvers in ARDS are used to improve oxygenation and lung mechanics by applying high airway pressures to reopen collapsed or obstructed peripheral airways and alveoli. In the early 1990s, recruitment maneuvers became a central feature of a variant form of lung-protective ventilation known as open-lung ventilation. This strategy is based on the belief that repetitive opening and closing of distal airspaces induces shear injury and therefore contributes both to ventilator-induced lung injury and ARDS-associated mortality.