Sadatomo Tasaka1, Koichiro Tatsumi2. 1. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hirosaki University Graduate School of Medicine, 5 Zaifucho, Hirosaki 036-8562, Japan. Electronic address: tasaka@hirosaki-u.ac.jp. 2. Department of Respirology, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: There has been limited information about epidemiology and clinical practice of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in Japan. METHODS: An invitation letter to the web-based survey was mailed to all 871 board certified hospitals of the Japanese Respiratory Society. The questionnaires were designed to collect data on epidemiology and clinical practice of ARDS, including diagnostic measures and therapeutics. RESULTS: Within 4 months of the survey period, valid responses were obtained from 296 (34%) hospitals. The incidence of ARDS was estimated to be 3.13 cases/100 hospital beds or 1.91 cases/ICU bed per year. The most frequent underlying disease was pneumonia (34%), followed by sepsis (29%). In hospitals with fewer ICU beds, pulmonologists tended to be in charge of management of ARDS patients. Routine diagnostic measures included computed tomography of the chest (69.6% of the hospitals) and Swan-Ganz catheterization was rarely performed for diagnosis. In 87.4% of the hospitals, non-invasive ventilation was applied to management of ARDS patients, especially those with mild disease. Prone positioning and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for ARDS patients was more widely adopted in hospitals with larger numbers of ICU beds and intensivists. In 58.2% of the responding hospitals, corticosteroid was considered as a treatment option for ARDS, among which pulse therapy was routinely introduced to ARDS patients in 35.4%. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of ARDS in Japan was estimated to be lower than that in the recent international study. The scale and equipment of hospitals and the number of intensivists might influence clinical practice of ARDS.
BACKGROUND: There has been limited information about epidemiology and clinical practice of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in Japan. METHODS: An invitation letter to the web-based survey was mailed to all 871 board certified hospitals of the Japanese Respiratory Society. The questionnaires were designed to collect data on epidemiology and clinical practice of ARDS, including diagnostic measures and therapeutics. RESULTS: Within 4 months of the survey period, valid responses were obtained from 296 (34%) hospitals. The incidence of ARDS was estimated to be 3.13 cases/100 hospital beds or 1.91 cases/ICU bed per year. The most frequent underlying disease was pneumonia (34%), followed by sepsis (29%). In hospitals with fewer ICU beds, pulmonologists tended to be in charge of management of ARDSpatients. Routine diagnostic measures included computed tomography of the chest (69.6% of the hospitals) and Swan-Ganz catheterization was rarely performed for diagnosis. In 87.4% of the hospitals, non-invasive ventilation was applied to management of ARDSpatients, especially those with mild disease. Prone positioning and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for ARDSpatients was more widely adopted in hospitals with larger numbers of ICU beds and intensivists. In 58.2% of the responding hospitals, corticosteroid was considered as a treatment option for ARDS, among which pulse therapy was routinely introduced to ARDSpatients in 35.4%. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of ARDS in Japan was estimated to be lower than that in the recent international study. The scale and equipment of hospitals and the number of intensivists might influence clinical practice of ARDS.