Articles: respiratory-distress-syndrome.
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Septic pulmonary injury remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients today and is likely to increase in prevalence as advances in medical technology allow the salvage of more critically ill and immunocompromised hosts. Treatment of the host's underlying disease and even of the infection itself has appeared to redeem septic patients only to have them succumb in increasing numbers to the pulmonary injury reaction. ⋯ Currently we recognize the contributions of several blood elements, lipids, and peptides to pulmonary injury, although the relative importance and points of interaction and interdependence of these mediators remain to be established. It is hoped that a more complete understanding of the process of pulmonary injury in sepsis will suggest effective means of intervention at a stage in which damage may be reversed or minimized.
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Acute respiratory failure is frequently fatal. Attempts to decrease mortality must include attention to pulmonary and extrapulmonary complications. ⋯ Extra-pulmonary complications such as gastrointestinal hemorrhage, renal failure, infection, and thrombocytopenia may increase mortality. Early diagnosis, aggressive treatment, and prophylaxis of complications should increase survival.
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Adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) represents a common pathway of damage to the lungs by a wide variety of different agents. The important aetiological factors and mechanisms of lung injury are considered. ⋯ Probably the most important of these is oxygen. This gas is said to produce interstitial pulmonary fibrosis but this concept is once again questioned.