Inhaled nitric oxide in anesthesia and critical care medicine.

Inhaled NO is an exciting new drug and has enormous potential in the therapy of a wide variety of acute, and possibly chronic, cardiopulmonary disorders. No reports of controlled, randomized, and blinded trials have been published concerning the use of inhaled NO in any clinical condition. In the United States, use of inhaled NO currently requires an investigational new drug approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Physicians involved in anesthesia and critical care medicine have a unique opportunity to validate a new mode of therapy in acute care, and optimal evaluation should be undertaken so that the real therapeutic role of inhaled NO may be defined.