Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) after trauma: Improving incidence, but increasing mortality

Abstract Purpose Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is an infrequent, yet morbid inflammatory complication in injury victims. With the current project we sought to estimate trends in incidence, determine outcomes, and identify risk factors for ARDS and related mortality. Materials & methods The national Trauma Quality Improvement Program dataset (2010–2014) was queried. Demographics, injury characteristics and outcomes were compared between patients who developed ARDS and those who did not. Logistic regression models were fitted for the development of ARDS and mortality respectively, adjusting for relevant confounders. Results In the studied 808,195 TQIP patients, incidence of ARDS decreased over the study years (3–1.1%, p  Conclusion Although the incidence of ARDS after trauma appears to be declining, mortality is on the rise.