Learn About Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening lung condition that prevents enough oxygen from getting to the lungs and into the blood. Infants can also have respiratory distress syndrome.
Noncardiogenic pulmonary edema; Increased-permeability pulmonary edema; ARDS; Acute lung injury
ARDS can be caused by any major direct or indirect injury to the lung. Common causes include:
- Breathing vomit into the lungs (aspiration)
- Inhaling chemicals
- Lung transplant
- Pneumonia, including COVID-19 infection
- Septic shock (infection throughout the body)
- Transfusions (multiple)
- Trauma
Depending on the amount of oxygen in the blood and during breathing, the severity of ARDS is classified as:
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
ARDS leads to a buildup of fluid in the air sacs (alveoli). This fluid prevents enough oxygen from passing into the bloodstream.
The fluid buildup also makes the lungs heavy and stiff. This decreases the lungs' ability to expand. The level of oxygen in the blood can stay dangerously low, even if the person receives oxygen from a breathing machine (ventilator) through a breathing tube (endotracheal tube).
ARDS often occurs along with the failure of other organ systems, such as the heart, liver or kidneys. Cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol use may be risk factors for its development.
Symptoms usually develop within 24 to 48 hours of the injury or illness. Often, people with ARDS are so sick they cannot report symptoms. Symptoms can include any of the following:
- Shortness of breath
- Fast heartbeat
- Low blood pressure and organ failure
- Rapid breathing
ARDS often needs to be treated in an intensive care unit (ICU).
The goal of treatment is to provide breathing support and treat the cause of ARDS. This may involve medicines to treat infections, reduce inflammation, and remove fluid from the lungs.
A ventilator is used to deliver high doses of oxygen and positive pressure to the damaged lungs. People often need to be deeply sedated with medicines. During treatment, your health care providers make every effort to protect your lungs from further damage. Certain ways of using the ventilator can protect your lungs better and improve chances of recovery. Treatment is mainly supportive until the lungs recover.
Sometimes, a treatment called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is done. During ECMO, blood is filtered through a machine to provide oxygen and remove carbon dioxide.
Montefiore Medical Center
Michelle N. Gong, MD, MS, is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is also the Chief of Critical Care Medicine, Associate Chief of Academic Affairs, and Director of Critical Care Research at Montefiore. Dr. Gong’s clinical focus is on critical care delivery, predictive analytics, and process improvements, such as the implementation of sedation and delirium protocols and early mobilization in the medical intensive care unit, which has reduced the duration of mechanical ventilation, length of stay, hospital costs, and ICU complications. She joined the Einstein/Montefiore faculty in July 2009. Dr. Gong received an Engineering degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She then went on to earn her Doctor of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Beth Israel Hospital in medicine and at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the Harvard Combined Program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Gong studied at the Harvard School of Public Health, receiving her Master’s Degree in Clinical Epidemiology. Dr. Gong has spent her career improving outcomes in patients along the entire continuum of critical illness, from its development to progression and recovery, with an overall focus on the prediction and prevention of acute organ failure and its complications. Her current research ranges from acute respiratory distress syndrome to prevention of delirium, treatment of severe influenza, big data and predictive analysis in risk prediction, and effective clinical decision support systems. Under her leadership, Montefiore/Einstein was selected as a clinical center for the NHLBI Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) Clinical Trials Network which represents the first representation of a medical center from the New York and the tri-state area. Collaborating with the research informatics and healthcare industries, Dr. Gong has fostered the application of informatic approaches to drive improvement in healthcare delivery and research. Dr. Gong is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Her top areas of expertise are Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and Cerebral Hypoxia.
Penn Heart And Vascular Center
Nuala Meyer is a Pulmonary Medicine provider in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Meyer is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Her top areas of expertise are Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Lung Transplant, and Gastrostomy. Dr. Meyer is currently accepting new patients.
Harron Lung Center Perelman
Jason Christie is a Pulmonary Medicine provider in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Christie is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). His top areas of expertise are Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), Bronchiolitis Obliterans, Cerebral Hypoxia, Acute Interstitial Pneumonia, and Lung Transplant. Dr. Christie is currently accepting new patients.
Many family members of people with ARDS are under extreme stress. They can often relieve this stress by joining support groups where members share common experiences and problems.
About one third of people with ARDS die of the disease. Those who live often get back most of their normal lung function, but many people have permanent (usually mild) lung damage.
Many people who survive ARDS have memory loss or other quality-of-life problems after they recover. This is due to brain damage that occurred when the lungs were not working properly and the brain was not getting enough oxygen. Some people can also have post-traumatic stress after surviving ARDS.
Problems that may result from ARDS or its treatment include:
- Failure of many organ systems
- Lung damage, such as a collapsed lung (also called pneumothorax) due to injury from the breathing machine needed to treat the disease
- Pulmonary fibrosis (scarring of the lung)
- Ventilator-associated pneumonia
ARDS most often occurs during another illness, for which the person is already in the hospital. In some cases, a healthy person has severe pneumonia that gets worse and becomes ARDS. If you have trouble breathing, call your local emergency number (such as 911) or go to the emergency room.
Summary: Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) has recently been identified as a pandemic due to the speed and global scale of its transmission. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (AURA), the epidemic began in February 2020 and the number of infected people is still important. Between 15 and 20% of COVID-19 patients develop an acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) leading to their hospitali...
Summary: Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonotic diseases caused by pathogenic Leptospira spp. Human are accidental hosts, who acquired infections after exposition to animal urine, contaminated water or soil, infected tissue. Incidence of invasive leptospirosis disease causing acute kidney injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), myocarditis, hepatic dysfunction, hemorrhage and multi-organ failure...
Published Date: November 25, 2023
Published By: Denis Hadjiliadis, MD, MHS, Paul F. Harron, Jr. Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
Binnie A, Herridge MS, Lee WL. Acute respiratory distress syndrome. In: Broaddus VC, Ernst JD, King TE, et al, eds. Murray and Nadel's Textbook of Respiratory Medicine. 7th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2022:chap 134.
Matthay MA, Ware LB. Acute respiratory failure. In: Goldman L, Cooney KA, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 27th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 90.
Seigel TA, Johnson NJ. Mechanical ventilation and noninvasive ventilatory support. In: Walls RM, ed. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023:chap 2.