Vaping-Associated Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Case Classification and Clinical Guidance

Exposure to vaping is associated with a growing list of respiratory syndromes including an acute progressive form with life-threatening hypoxemic respiratory failure and pathologic changes of lung injury termed vaping-associated respiratory distress syndrome.

Center from Disease Control, Departments of Public Health, MEDLINE (via PubMed), and the Cochrane Library.

Cases, series, and public health reports of cases that met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case definition of vaping-associated respiratory disease were extracted by an author with perfect verification by a second. Cases were classified on the basis of toxin exposure, symptoms, oxygen saturation, progression to respiratory failure, and pathologic features, and a clinically actionable system of classification was based on expert opinion.

The reported spectrum of vaping-associated respiratory diseases allows clinical classification of cases into groups with distinct evaluation, management, and recommendations for prevention and follow-up. Clinical stratification also identifies a small proportion of vaping-exposed patients who are at risk for progression to hypoxemic respiratory failure and an acute respiratory distress syndrome-like illness.