Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association
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J Miss State Med Assoc · Nov 1999
The acute respiratory distress syndrome in children: recent UMMC experience.
The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is now well recognized as a cause of respiratory failure in children and is associated with a high mortality rate. We retrospectively reviewed all cases of ARDS managed in our multidisciplinary pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) from 1994 to 1998 in order to identify predisposing conditions, outcomes, complications, recent trends in therapy, and resource utilization. Twenty-seven children were identified representing approximately 1% of all intensive care admissions. ⋯ On average, survivors required mechanical ventilation for five weeks and hospitalization for nine weeks. We conclude that despite our comparatively low mortality rate, ARDS remains a significant challenge to the pediatric intensivist. We speculate that HFOV may be an important factor in reducing mortality.