title: Current incidence and outcome of the acute respiratory distress syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article discusses recently published articles reporting the incidence and outcome of patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This is a difficult task since there is a marked variability regarding the methodology of the few, large epidemiological, and observational studies on ARDS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The review will mainly focus on publications from the past 18 months. We have reviewed new epidemiological studies reporting population-based incidence of ARDS. Also, we have reviewed the data on survival reported in observational and randomized controlled trials, discussed how the current ARDS definition modifies the true incidence of ARDS, and briefly mentioned recent approaches that appear to improve ARDS outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  On the basis of current evidence, it seems that the incidence and overall hospital mortality of ARDS has not changed substantially in the last decade. Independent of the definition used for identification of ARDS patients, reported population-based incidence of ARDS is an order of magnitude lower in Europe than in the USA. Current hospital mortality of combined moderate and severe ARDS reported in observational studies is greater than 40%.
authors.affiliation: aCIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid bMultidisciplinary Organ Dysfunction Evaluation Research Network (MODERN), Research Unit, Hospital Universitario Dr Negrin, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain cKeenan Research Center for Biomedical Science at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada dIntensive Care Unit, Hospital Universitario Río Hortega, Valladolid, Spain eDepartment of Respiratory Care, Massachusetts General Hospital fDepartment of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Villar
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Kacmarek
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012128:Respiratory Distress Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome