Acute lung injury: significance, treatment and outcome

This paper aims to provide a condensed review of the most essential and current research findings in the field of acute lung injury over the past year.

We review the most recent important findings in both laboratory-based and clinical research in the field of acute lung injury. Significant advances have been made in the past year with respect to our understanding of the pathogenesis of acute lung injury, and how key pathological events relate to prognosis, outcomes, and the promise of new potential therapeutic interventions. In particular, significant advances have been made in our understanding of the prognostic roles of neutrophil recruitment and clearance, fibrinogenesis, inflammatory cytokines, alveolar fluid clearance, and endothelial injury and activation. Paramount studies have provided greater skepticism over the efficacy of prone positioning and the currently available surfactant replacement therapies. In addition, new research has fostered an improved appreciation of the long-term sequelae of acute lung injury.

Recent advances in our understanding of the pathogenesis of acute lung injury have provided the promise of exciting potential interventions to modify intravascular and extravascular fibrinogenesis, neutrophil activation and clearance, and alveolar fluid clearance. Our new understanding of prolonged disability and post-traumatic stress in acute lung injury survivors will ultimately change the standard for how these patients are managed in the intensive care unit and followed beyond their hospital stay.