[Outcome of the adult acute respiratory distress syndrome. Predictive value of a severity index calculated from arterial oxygenation (author's transl)].

A retrospective study was carried out a group of 50 adult patients who had presented with acute respiratory distress syndrome and had all been treated by mechanically controlled ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP). The predictive value of the so-called "severity index" was tested. This index, which is used from the second day of treatment onward to predict with strong probability whether the lung lesions will subside or develop, is obtained from the PaO2 after corrections taking into account the FiO2 and the PEEP level. The study also supplied information on the outcome of lung lesions which may result in one of four possible courses of about equal frequency: the patient may either die or be cured rapidly after less than a week of assisted ventilation, or he may die at a later date or be cured slowly after more than a week of assisted ventilation.