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Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Severe inflammatory lung injury causing hypoxemia, bilateral infiltrates, and refractory respiratory failure.

Also: ARDS

Triggered by pneumonia (including COVID-19), sepsis, aspiration, trauma, and major surgery. ICU management includes lung-protective ventilation, prone positioning, and conservative fluid strategy. Nutrition support is typically enteral, starting at trophic rates and advancing as tolerated, with attention to gastric residual volumes, refeeding risk in malnourished patients, and accumulating calories from propofol.

How one textbook covers it

  • Krause and Mahan's Food and the Nutrition Care Process, 16th ed. — Chapter 34

    Triggered by pneumonia (including COVID-19), sepsis, aspiration, trauma, and major surgery. ICU management includes lung-protective ventilation, prone positioning, and conservative fluid strategy. Nutrition support is typically enteral, starting at trophic rates and advancing as tolerated, with attention to gastric residual volumes, refeeding risk in malnourished patients, and accumulating calories from propofol.

Related terms

Critical Illness, Enteral Nutrition, Sepsis