“…The latter include elevated positive pressure (barotrauma), alveolar overdistension (volutrauma) [8,10], repetitive collapse-reopening cycles (atelettrauma) [10], low oxygen tension, and the so-called reventilation injury [13,14,22]. All these factors are responsible for oxidative stress [16,19,20,21] and excess recruitment of inflammatory cells, with subsequent activation of cytokine network and establishment of an inflamed microenvironment [8,[11][12][13]15]. These compartmental changes, which can involve both the dependent and non-dependent (operated) lung, configure a condition known as "Ventilator-Associated Lung Injury" (VALI).…”