Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Importance: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening form of respiratory failure that affects approximately 200 000 patients each year in the United States, resulting in nearly 75 000 deaths annually. Globally, ARDS accounts for 10% of intensive care unit admissions, representing more than 3 million patients with ARDS annually. Objective: To review advances in diagnosis and treatment of ARDS over the last 5 years. Evidence Review: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from 2012 to 2017 focusing on randomized clinical trials, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and clinical practice guidelines. Articles were identified for full text review with manual review of bibliographies generating additional references. Findings: After screening 1662 citations, 31 articles detailing major advances in the diagnosis or treatment of ARDS were selected. The Berlin definition proposed 3 categories of ARDS based on the severity of hypoxemia: mild (200 mm Hg