Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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The incidence and outcome of acute respiratory failure (ARF) depend on dysfunction in other organs. As a result, reported mortality in patients with ARF is derived from a mixed group of patients with different degrees of multiorgan failure. The main goal of the present study was to investigate patient outcome in single organ ARF. ⋯ The prognosis for ICU patients with single organ ARF is good, both in the short and long terms. The high overall mortality rate observed is caused by dysfunction in other organs.