Evolution of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Emergency and Critical Care: Therapeutic Management before and during the Pandemic Situation

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Acute respiratory distress syndrome is a life-threatening lung condition that prevents enough oxygen from getting to the lungs and blood. The causes can be varied, although since the COVID-19 pandemic began there have been many cases related to this virus. The management and evolution of ARDS in emergency situations in the last 5 years was analyzed. Materials and Methods: A systematic review was carried out in the PubMed and Scopus databases. Using the descriptors Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), the search equation was: “Emergency health service AND acute respiratory distress syndrome”. The search was conducted in December 2021. Quantitative primary studies on the care of patients with ARDS in an emergency setting published in the last 5 years were included. Results: In the initial management, adherence to standard treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is recommended. The use of extracorporeal membrane reduces the intensity of mechanical ventilation or as rescue therapy in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The prone position in both intubated and non-intubated patients with severe ARDS is associated with a better survival of these patients, therefore, it is very useful in these moments of pandemic crisis. Lack of resources forces triage decisions about which patients are most likely to survive to start mechanical ventilation and this reflects the realities of intensive care and emergency care in a resource-limited setting. Conclusions: adequate prehospital management of ARDS and in emergency situations can improve the prognosis of patients. The therapeutic options in atypical ARDS due to COVID-19 do not seem to vary substantially from conventional ARDS.

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“…While people with good immune systems remained asymptomatic on contracting the virus, 20 % of the infected population showed severe symptoms leading to hospitalization (Long et al 2020). Of the symptomatic 20% cases, only 4% developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and need ventilator support for artificial breathing during treatment (Ma et al 2020;Granados-Bolivar et al 2022;Tran et al 2022;Matin et al 2022;Mirsaliyev et al 2022). Also, COVID 19 shows gender differences and it affects men more widely than women, the phenomenon of occurrence of which is still unknown (Blaskó et al 2020;Islam et al 2022;Rabiul Islam et al 2022).…”