Advanced Point-of-care Bedside Monitoring for Acute Respiratory Failure

Abstract

Advanced respiratory monitoring involves several mini- or noninvasive tools, applicable at bedside, focused on assessing lung aeration and morphology, lung recruitment and overdistention, ventilation–perfusion distribution, inspiratory effort, respiratory drive, respiratory muscle contraction, and patient–ventilator asynchrony, in dealing with acute respiratory failure. Compared to a conventional approach, advanced respiratory monitoring has the potential to provide more insights into the pathologic modifications of lung aeration induced by the underlying disease, follow the response to therapies, and support clinicians in setting up a respiratory support strategy aimed at protecting the lung and respiratory muscles. Thus, in the clinical management of the acute respiratory failure, advanced respiratory monitoring could play a key role when a therapeutic strategy, relying on individualization of the treatments, is adopted.