Key Points
➤ These recommendations apply only to patients with acute
respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and do not address
questions related to pharmacologic therapies to facilitate
mechanical ventilation (e.g., neuromuscular blockade),
adjunctive measures (e.g., inhaled vasodilators), and other
ventilatory modes (e.g., airway pressure release ventilation).
➤ Recommendations have not been made for combined or
sequential treatments with interventions included in this
guideline since their potential benefits or synergies have not
been explicitly studied.
Interpretation of strong and conditional (weak) recommendations
Strong recommendation
Conditional (weak)
recommendation
Patients Most individuals in this situation
would want the recommended
course of action, and only a small
proportion would not.
e majority of individuals in this
situation would want the suggested
course of action, but many would not.
Clinicians Most individuals should receive
the intervention. Adherence to this
recommendation according to the
guideline could be used as a quality
criterion or performance indicator.
Formal decision aids are not likely
to be needed to help patients or
their substitute decision-makers
make decisions consistent with their
values and preferences.
Recognize that different choices will
be appropriate for individual patients
and that you must help each patient
arrive at a management decision
consistent with his or her values and
preferences. Decision aids may be
useful in helping patients or their
substitute decision-makers to make
decisions consistent with patient's
values and preferences.
Policy makers e recommendation can
be adopted as policy in most
situations.
Policymaking will require substantial
debate and involvement of various
stakeholders.
