Published ahead of print on December 18, 2002, doi:10.1164/rccm.200203-198OC
© 2003 American Thoracic Society
Sigh in Supine and Prone Position during Acute Respiratory Distress SyndromeDipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e Biologiche, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Ospedale di Circolo, Fondazione Macchi, Varese; Istituto di Anestesia e Rianimazione, Università degli Studi di Milano, Ospedale Maggiore IRCCS, Milano; and Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Luciano Gattinoni, Istituto di Anestesia e Rianimazione, Università degli Studi di Milano, Ospedale MaggioreIRCCS, via Francesco Sforza 35, 20122 Milano, Italy. E-mail: gattinon{at}polic.cilea.it
Interventions aimed at recruiting the lung of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are not uniformly effective. Because the prone position increases homogeneity of inflation of the lung, we reasoned that it might enhance its potential for recruitment. We ventilated 10 patients with early ARDS (PaO2/FIO2, 121 ± 46 mm Hg; positive end-expiratory pressure, 14 ± 3 cm H2O) in supine and prone, with and without the addition of three consecutive "sighs" per minute to recruit the lung. Inspired oxygen fraction, positive end-expiratory pressure, and minute ventilation were kept constant. Sighs increased PaO2 in both supine and prone (p < 0.01). The highest values of PaO2 (192 ± 41 mm Hg) and end-expiratory lung volume (1,840 ± 790 ml) occurred with the addition of sighs in prone and remained significantly elevated 1 hour after discontinuation of the sighs. The increase in PaO2 associated with the sighs, both in supine and prone, correlated linearly with the respective increase of end-expiratory lung volume (r = 0.82, p < 0.001). We conclude that adding a recruitment maneuver such as cyclical sighs during ventilation in the prone position may provide optimal lung recruitment in the early stage of ARDS.
Key Words: acute lung injury acute respiratory distress syndrome mechanical ventilation recruitment end-expiratory lung volume Mechanical ventilation with low tidal volume may prevent ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) and increased survival of patients with acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS) (1). However, using low ventilatory volumes may also limit alveolar inflation and promote atelectasis and hypoxemia (2, 3). Thus, "lung protective" strategies to ventilate patients with ALI/ARDS have to consider two potentially conflicting goals: preventing VILI and reinflating collapsed alveoli. Lung inflation can be promoted with a recruitment maneuver (RM), which consists in periodically raising the alveolar pressure above the level reached during tidal ventilation. RMs are commonly performed by applying a sustained pressure of 4050 cm H2O at the airway for 3060 seconds (4). Alternatively, one or more large breaths (sighs) of 4050 cm H2O plateau airway pressure can be delivered cyclically during tidal ventilation (5). RMs improve gas exchange and respiratory mechanics in a number of patients but are not uniformly effective (6, 7). Reasons for the inconsistent results of RMs include the following: (1) the concomitant use of high positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), which per se promotes recruitment (8, 9), and (2) an inhomogeneous distribution of lung collapse/edema, which results in a preferential inflation of already open (thus more compliant) areas of the lung rather than of the targeted collapsed alveoli (8). Because the distribution of lung inflation and collapse in early ALI/ARDS are often inhomogeneous (10, 11), we reasoned that if we could reverse or decrease this inhomogeneity, we might enhance the effects of a RM. A way to achieve a more even distribution of lung inflation in patients with ALI/ARDS is to ventilate them prone. Turning from supine to prone reverses in part their characteristic distribution of lung collapse and edema that has most consolidation in the dorsal, dependent areas of the lung and sufficient aeration in the ventral regions (12). This more favorable distribution of lung inflation improves gas exchange and respiratory mechanics in a number of patients with ALI/ARDS (1315). Hence, we designed this study of patients with early ARDS to test the hypothesis that prone position enhances the physiologic effect of a RM. Our hypothesis is supported by the findings of a canine model of ALI showing that a lower PEEP is required in the prone than in the supine position to preserve the effects of a RM (16). Our hypothesis is clinically relevant because approximately 50% of ARDS patients do not exhibit a satisfactory response to a RM in the supine position (6, 7).
Study Population The study was approved by our Institutional Review Board. Informed consent was obtained from the patients' next of kin. We studied 10 consecutive patients in the early phase of ALI/ARDS, defined according to the criteria of the American European Consensus Conference (17). We excluded patients with known chronic obstructive lung disease.
Study Design Mechanical ventilation was provided using a tidal volume of approximately 7 ml/kg of actual body weight to maintain an upper limit of plateau airway pressure of approximately 35 cm H2O. A slight increase in airway pressure (23 cm H2O) was accepted in the prone position because it was associated with a decreased compliance of the chest wall and was not deemed to reflect an increase in transpulmonary pressure. The level of PEEP was selected by the attending physician using a PEEP trial that is routinely performed in ALI/ARDS patients in our unit (5). Intrinsic PEEP was measured by an occlusion maneuver at end expiration.
Sighs
Measurements Mean airway pressure was calculated as the area under the curve of the airway pressure over time trace. The "weighted" mean airway pressure measures the mean airway pressure of both sigh and nonsigh breaths during the sigh periods. Both mean and weighted mean were calculated digitally by a waveform analysis software (Colligo; Elekton, Milan, Italy). Respiratory mechanics were obtained with a standard method during an end-inspiratory pause maneuver (14).
Statistical Analysis
The general characteristics of the study population are reported in Table 1 .
Gas Exchange Ventilatory parameters during the various study periods are reported in Table 2 . By design, the FIO2 (0.80 ± 0.15), PEEP (14 ± 3 cm H2O), and minute ventilation were maintained constant throughout the study. Also constant was the mean airway pressure of the nonsigh breaths so that the weighted mean airway pressure increased slightly with the sighs. No intrinsic PEEP was detected.
Gas exchange and EELV during the various study periods are reported in Table 3 . Adding the sighs in the supine position increased the PaO2 from 95 ± 26 to 110 ± 31 mm Hg (p < 0.01), decreased venous admixture from 38.2 ± 9.5 to 34.5 ± 10.8% (p < 0.01), and did not change EELV significantly (1,400 ± 640 to 1,470 ± 680 ml, p = 0.1). The PaCO2 showed a decreasing trend in both positions (p < 0.05 by ANOVA, treatment). The physiologic dead space (VD/VT) did not change throughout the study. After discontinuing the sighs, PaO2, venous admixture, and EELV returned to baseline.
Changing from the supine to the prone position increased the PaO2 from 95 ± 26 to 155 ± 30 mm Hg (p < 0.01), decreased venous admixture from 38.2 ± 9.5 to 30 ± 9.3% (p < 0.01), and increased EELV from 1,400 ± 640 to 1,570 ± 720 ml (p < 0.01). Adding the sighs in the prone position increased PaO2 (155 ± 30 to 192 ± 41 mm Hg, p < 0.01), decreased venous admixture (30 ± 9.3 to 25.2 ± 10%, p < 0.01), and increased EELV (1,570 ± 720 to 1,840 ± 790 ml, p < 0.01) compared with the prone position without sighs. After discontinuing the sighs, PaO2 and EELV decreased but remained significantly greater than before adding the sighs. The individual patient's response to the addition of the sighs in the supine and prone positions is shown in Figure 1 .
Adding the sighs increased the PaO2 more in prone than in supine (37 ± 17 vs. 16 ± 11 mm Hg, p < 0.001). It also increased the EELV more in prone than in supine (277 ± 198 vs. 68 ± 83 ml, p < 0.01). The increase of PaO2 associated with the sighs in prone correlated linearly with the increase of PaO2 associated with the sighs in supine (r = 0.77, p < 0.01; Figure 2) . Also, the increase in EELV associated with the sighs in prone correlated linearly with the increase in EELV associated with the sighs in supine (r = 0.65, p < 0.05). The changes in PaO2 that occurred when turning from supine to prone did not correlate with changes in EELV (r = 0.31, p = NS). However, changes in PaO2 that occurred with adding the sighs both in the supine and prone position correlated with changes in EELV (r = 0.82, p < 0.0001; Figure 3) .
Respiratory Mechanics Changes in static elastance of the respiratory system, partitioned into its lung and chest wall components, are reported in Table 4 . The addition of the sighs decreased the elastance of the respiratory system in both supine (30 ± 16 vs. 33 ± 15 cm H2O/L, p < 0.05) and prone position (32 ± 13 vs. 35 ± 15 cm H2O/L, p < 0.05). The elastance of the lung showed a decreasing trend with the addition of the sighs in both positions (p < 0.05 by ANOVA, treatment). It also showed a decreasing trend as an effect of the prone position (p < 0.05 by ANOVA, position). Turning from supine to prone increased the static elastance of the chest wall from 10 ± 5 to 18 ± 7 cm H2O/L (p < 0.01).
Hemodynamics The prone position increased central venous pressure, pulmonary artery pressure, and pulmonary artery occlusion pressures compared with supine (Table 5) , without changes in cardiac output and systemic arterial pressure. Adding the sighs in both supine and prone did not affect hemodynamics.
Complications No complications were observed with the application of sighs. Specifically, there was no occurrence of detectable barotrauma, such as pneumothorax and interstitial emphysema. No complications were noted with prone ventilation.
The most important findings of our study of patients with early ALI/ARDS are (1) the addition of sighs increased the PaO2 in both the supine and prone positions and (2) the increase of PaO2 was likely related to lung recruitment. The use of RMs has been proposed to limit alveolar closure during low tidal volume ventilation in patients with ALI/ARDS (4). However, as many as 50% of patients have no significant improvement in gas exchange after 30120 seconds of sustained inflation at airway pressures of 4050 cm H2O (6, 7). A situation that may limit the efficacy of RMs may occur in early ALI/ARDS when collapse and edema are preferentially located in the dependent, dorsal areas of the lung (11). In such cases, the pressure applied at the airway with a RM may preferentially distribute to compliant areas of the lung that are already ventilated rather than to the collapsed alveoli that one would like to recruit. Prone ventilation abolishes the physiologic dorsoventral gradient of lung inflation in animal models (19, 20) and can preferentially inflate the collapsed dorsal areas of the lung of patients with early ARDS (12). Thus, prone ventilation may increase the potential of the ARDS lung to be recruited. In a canine model of oleic acidinduced ALI, a 30-second sustained inflation at 60 cm H2O was more effective in the prone than in the supine position, and a lower PEEP was required in prone to maintain the same gas exchange as in supine (16). In our study of patients with early ALI/ARDS, the PaO2 increased with the addition of sighs in the supine position, increased further by turning prone, and further again by adding sighs in the prone position (Table 3). The increase of PaO2 associated with sighs during prone ventilation persisted for at least 1 hour after returning to the supine position. These results beg two main questions: (1) How did the sighs increase PaO2, and (2) how did the prone position result in a greater effect of the sighs?
How Did the Sighs Increase PaO2? What is striking in this study is the response to the sighs in the prone position. Figure 3 shows how the significant correlation between changes in EELV and PaO2 is driven by the measurements obtained in prone. It would be tempting to speculate that those patients that for some physiologic reason (e.g., pulmonary etiology of ARDS) are not destined to respond to a RM can benefit exquisitely by proning. However, we did not prospectively select a patient population with the appropriate size and characteristics to address this question. It can be argued that an increase of the EELV is not synonymous with lung recruitment. Other useful methods to document recruitment include the measurement of ventilation and perfusion with the multiple inert gas elimination technique (9), which, however, is available only in a few specialized centers, and high-resolution computed tomography (24). We did not include computed tomography imaging in this study because it would have added further complexity to an already long (8 hours) protocol. However, we reasoned that if collapsed lung tissue is reinflated while ventilating with a constant tidal volume, the elastance of the respiratory system will improve. We did document a significant decrease in static elastance of the respiratory system in the nonsigh breaths during ventilation with sighs, in both positions (Table 4), as it has been observed previously (5, 21). Thus, the significant linear correlation between the increase of EELV and PaO2 and the decrease in static elastance of the respiratory system strongly suggests that sighs improved gas exchange by promoting lung recruitment.
How Did the Prone Position Enhance the Effect of the Sighs? Thus, the mechanisms that improve PaO2 with a RM (sighs in this case) and with prone ventilation may in part differ. Turning from supine to prone frequently increases PaO2 without a clear correlation with the change of EELV (14, 25). Different from PEEP and RMs, the prone position may redistribute rather than globally increase the pressure gradient that determines lung inflation and result in a homogeneous pattern of inflation (12). Based on these observations, we reasoned that if we ventilate patients with early ALI/ARDS in the prone position, we may make their lung topography more suitable to recruitment. Our results substantiate this hypothesis. First, our data are in line with previous studies of the prone position in both adults (14) and children (26) that showed a significant increase of PaO2 (in our case an average of 60 mm Hg) associated with a modest increase of EELV (approximately 200 ml; Table 3). This kind of interaction between PaO2 and EELV is typical of the prone position and is likely the result of redistribution of alveolar ventilation. Second, measuring the mechanical properties of the respiratory system provided support to our hypothesis (Table 4). In the face of a significant increase of the chest wall elastance (typical of the prone position), the static elastance of the lung showed a trend toward a decrease throughout the three prone study periods, documented by the statistically significant effect of position by two-way ANOVA. In an earlier study of the prone position, we observed a very similar change of elastance of the lung, which progressed to become significant only after resuming the supine position (14). One can argue that changes of EELV or the lack thereof do not definitely document or exclude the occurrence of recruitment. Measurement of regional pulmonary inflation would have been ideal, but it is problematic. Regional computed tomography analysis of gas/tissue ratio has been used for this purpose (27, 28) but is a complex and not standardized method. A qualitative estimate of the changes associated with turning prone has been repeatedly documented with computed tomography, and we were not compelled to replicate it (12, 24). Thus, the increase of PaO2 associated with a limited increase of EELV and the trend toward an improved elastance of the lung suggest that the mechanism responsible for the increased effect of the sighs in the prone position was a more even distribution of lung inflation.
Methodological Considerations
PEEP.
Tidal volume.
Hemodynamics.
Study design.
We enrolled a small number of subjects: 10 patients.
Randomization.
Esophageal pressure.
Conclusion
The authors thank the physicians and nurses of the "Emma Vecla" Intensive Care Unit of the Ospedale Policlinico di Milano for their precious help and cooperation. They also thank Dr. Paolo Cadringher for his technical support and Dr. Angelo Colombo for his revision and advice in the statistical analysis.
This article has an online supplement, which is accessible from this issue's table of contents online at www.atsjournals.org Received in original form March 13, 2002; accepted in final form November 27, 2002
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