Pneumologie
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Acute lung injury (ALI) is of paramount importance for modern intensive care since it is one of the most frequent conditions necessitating admission to an ICU. ALI is characterised by severe life threatening hypoxemia which is based on ventilation perfusion mismatching within the lung. This is mostly resulting from atelectasis formation due to primary or secondary inflammation of lung tissue. ⋯ Moreover, different technologies and adjunctive therapies have been suggested based on their pathophysiology. All these treatment options will be summarized in this article. Given the clear evidence for protective ventilation and bearing in mind that clinical application of this easy concept is still not widespread we will focus on this aspect.