Recruitment manoeuvres in acute respiratory distress syndrome: Little evidence for routine use

The use of alveolar recruitment manoeuvres for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome is a topic of uncertainty in current critical care practice. Acute respiratory distress syndrome leads to inflammatory atelectasis, which challenges the gas exchange properties of the lung. Recruitment of atelectatic lung tissue requires elevation of transpulmonary pressure. Transpulmonary pressure can be suppressed at a given airway pressure when pleural pressures are elevated. The present review discusses recruitment of lung tissue in detail, highlighting the key research in the field. Differing techniques for recruiting lung tissue, as well as various outcome measures to determine efficacy, are analyzed and critiqued. The commonly used sustained inflation manoeuvre is perhaps regarded as the only strategy to recruit the lung, explaining its prevalence. Staircase recruitment with positive end-expiratory pressure titration is shown to be an equally – if not more – effective therapy that devotes attention to the maintenance of lung recruitment.