Histopathological Findings in the Lungs of ARDS Patients. Implications for the Management

Abstract

Aim : Diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) is commonly thought of as the basic tenet of the pathological background in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The goals of this review are to summarize the histopathological findings and to discuss the role of surgical lung biopsy (SLB) in ARDS patients in the light of the most recent literature.

Materials and methods : Non-systematic narrative review on patients with ARDS.

Results : The rate of DAD found in the literature is highly variable across the studies. SLB was found to change management in the majority of patients across the studies. One unique single-center study found that those ARDS patients who had a contributive SLB had better survival rates than those who had not.

Conclusion : Though SLB provides essential findings for the understanding and management in ARDS patients, this procedure is currently limited to a few centers.