Clinical Research Directory

Selective Lung Recruitment in Moderate to Severe ARDS : a Pilot Study

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is an acute condition affecting the lung after clinical aggression ( infectious process, pancreatitis, acute inflammatory event). This condition lead to major breathlessness due to the incapacity to properly oxygenize the boby because of lung lesions. Invasive mechanical ventilation is frequently required to grant sufficient oxygenation to the body. Unfortunately, while it allows oxygenation, mechanical ventilation can cause arms to the lung because of the mechanical power it delivers to the lung and create ventilation induced lung injuries (VILI). To reduce this risk, ventilator settings have been protocolized aiming to reduce the lung volume administered to the lung. It is effective to control the VILI but oxygenation may be insufficient under those protective parameters. To correct this lack of oxygenation practicians use recruiting maneuvers when a transient increase of lung volume administered to the lung to open collapse parts of the lung. Those maneuvers can cause barotrauma and provoke pneumothorax or decrease the heart flow. This study aim to assess the feasibility of selective recruitment maneuvers to increase oxygenation while reducing the risk of recruitment maneuvers. Briefly, a dedicated bronchial blocker is introduce in a lower part of the lung, a balloon attached to the catheter is expended isolating a part of the lung and a recruiting pressure is administered through the lumen of the catheter to selectively expend the isolated part of the lung. After the selected recruitment maneuver, the investigators will assess the expansion of the lung with a CT-scanner.