Bauchlagerung im ARDS: ein erfolgversprechender therapeutischer Ansatz

As early as 1974, Brian advocated the prone position for ventilated patients [5]. He suggested that this position might enhance ventilation of the dorsal parts of the lungs, thereby improving oxygenation. These considerations have been confirmed by several experimental and clinical studies [1, 6, 13, 17]. Better secretion removal, decreased intrapulmonary shunting, and an increased FRC are thought to be responsible for the observed improvement of oxygenation. However, the prone position never became very popular in the clinical treatment of the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Routine performance of thoracic CT scans in ARDS patients demonstrated preferential distribution of pathological densities in the dependent lung areas