[Follow-up of severe adult respiratory distress syndrome].

The results are presented of the clinical, radiological and pulmonary function follow ups in 6 patients 19 to 35 months after the onset of a most severe adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The previously healthy young patients required ventilatory support for 16 to 135 days, reflecting the severity of the ARDS. In agreement with earlier studies, lung function improved rapidly in the first year but barely thereafter. Nineteen to 35 months after the ARDS a mild to moderate degree of restrictive ventilatory impairment could be detected in all our patients, associated with a significant arterial hypoxemia on exercise in five. Additionally, three patients showed signs of reversible airway obstruction. If the subacute course rather than the acute phase of the disease is taken as the criterion, there appears to be a relationship between the severity of the ARDS and the residual impairment of lung function. The fact that even most severe lung damage eventually led to a more or less significant loss of the functional reserves of the lung, but hardly ever ended in chronic respiratory failure, justifies all possible intensive care efforts in the treatment of those patients.