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Since the first description of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), various consensus conferences (including American-European Consensus Conference (AECC) and the Berlin Conference) have produced definitions focused on adult lung injury but have limitations when applied to children.
This prompted the organization of the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference (PALICC), comprised of 27 experts, representing 21 academic institutions and eight countries. The goals of the conference were 1) to define pediatric ARDS (PARDS); 2) to offer recommendations regarding therapeutic support; and 3) to identify priorities for future research in PARDS.
Although there were several recommendations from the group, some notable ones, in contrast to the Berlin definition focused on adults, include: 1) use the Oxygenation Index (or, if an arterial blood gas is not available, the Oxygenation Severity Index) rather than the P/F ratio; 2) elimination of the requirement for “bilateral” pulmonary infiltrates (may be unilateral or bilateral) 3) elimination of specific age criteria for PARDS.
Tune in next month for pearls on management for children with PARDS...
References
Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Consensus Recommendations from the Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference. Pediatric Acute Lung Injury Consensus Conference Group. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2015 Jun;16(5):428-39
Collaborators: Jouvet P, Thomas NJ, Wilson DF, Erickson S, Khemani R, Zimmerman J, Dahmer M, Flori H, Quasney M, Sapru A, Cheifetz IM, Rimensberger PC, Kneyber M, Tamburro RF, Curley MA, Nadkarni V, Valentine S, Emeriaud G, Newth C, Carroll CL, Essouri S, Dalton H, Macrae D, Lopez-Cruces Y, Quasney M, Santschi M, Watson RS, Bembea M.