Emerging therapies for the prevention of acute respiratory distress syndrome

We present our personal review aimed at outlining current and future directions for the pharmacological prevention of ARDS. Several available risk-stratification or prediction score strategies for identification of patients at risk of ARDS have been reported. Although not ready for clinical everyday use, they are and will be instrumental in the ongoing and future trials of pharmacoprevention of ARDS. Several systemic medications established the potential role in ARDS prevention based on the preclinical studies and observational data. Due to potential for systemic adverse effects to neutralize any pharmacological benefits of systemic therapy, inhaled medications appear particularly attractive candidates for ARDS prevention. This is because of their direct delivery to the site of proposed action (lungs), while the pulmonary epithelial surface is still functional. We postulate that overall morbidity and mortality rates from ARDS in the future will be contingent upon decreasing the overall incidence of ARDS through effective identification of those at risk and early application of proven supportive care and pharmacological interventions.
Source: Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Reviews Source Type: research