Prone positioning ventilation for treatment of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome

Patients who are diagnosed with acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS) usually have ventilation-perfusion mismatch, severe decrease in lung capacity, and gas exchange abnormalities. Health care work-ers have implemented various strategies in an attempt to compensate for these pathological alterations. By rotating patients with ALI/ARDS between the supine and prone position, it is possible to achieve a significant improvement in PaO2/FiO2, decrease shunting and therefore improve oxy-genation without use of expensive, invasive and experimen-tal procedures.