Page 26 - Respiratory Failure

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Clinical Manifestations

• Acute dyspnoea and hypoxemia within hours to days of an inciting event, such as trauma, sepsis,

drug overdose, massive transfusion, acute pancreatitis, or aspiration.

• Patients developing ARDS are critically ill, often with multisystem organ failure, and they may not

be capable of providing historical information.

➢ Typically, the illness develops within 12-48 hours after the inciting event, although, in rare

instances, it may take up to a few days.

• With the onset of lung injury, patients initially note dyspnoea with exertion.

➢ This rapidly progresses to severe dyspnoea at rest, tachypnoea, anxiety, agitation, and the

need for increasingly high concentrations of inspired oxygen.