Review Article

Page 1 of 9

Management of severe respiratory failure in complex trauma patients

Matthew R. Noorbakhsh, Isaac R. Kriley

Division of Trauma Surgery, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Contributions: (I) Conception and design: All authors; (II) Administrative support: None; (III) Provision of study materials or patients: None; (IV)
Collection and assembly of data: All authors; (V) Data analysis and interpretation: All authors; (VI) Manuscript writing: All authors; (VII) Final
approval of manuscript: All authors.
Correspondence to: Matthew R. Noorbakhsh. Division of Trauma Surgery, Allegheny General Hospital, 320 East North Avenue, Fifth Floor, South
Tower, Pittsburgh, PA 15212, USA. Email: Matthew.Noorbakhsh@ahn.org.

Abstract: Acute respiratory failure represents a major challenge in the management of complex
trauma patients. Both direct thoracic injury and extrathoracic injury can lead to respiratory failure. The
pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying respiratory failure in this setting can vary. Successful management
of severe respiratory failure in complex trauma patients requires an understanding of these pathophysiologic
processes and careful attention to multiple treatment priorities. Lung-protective ventilation strategies,
judicious fluid management, and the use of rescue modalities are discussed in this review.

Keywords: Trauma; acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); chest; injury; extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation (ECMO)

Received: 26 October 2017; Accepted: 15 January 2018; Published: 01 March 2018.

doi: 10.21037/jeccm.2018.01.08
View this article at: http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jeccm.2018.01.08

Introduction respiratory failure following blunt chest trauma. The

parenchymal lung injury of blunt trauma may lead to
Acute respiratory failure represents a major challenge in
respiratory failure via a constellation of pathophysiologic
the management of trauma, affecting up to 20% of complex
changes, including increased production of mucus and
trauma patients (1,2). Respiratory failure can progress to
decreased clearance of mucus and blood from the airways,
acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), occurring in
alterations in surfactant stabilization of alveolar units,
up to 5% of blunt trauma patients admitted to the intensive
alterations of lung compliance, and ventilation/perfusion
care unit in one large series (3). Independent predictors of
mismatch (4).
development of ARDS include injury severity score (ISS)
Often (but not always) associated with pulmonary
greater than 25, the presence of pulmonary contusion,
contusion, rib fractures lead to respiratory failure via
age greater than 65, hypotension on admission, and blood
alterations in the cohesive function of the chest wall as
product transfusion requirement of more than ten units.
a unit to provide negative pressure and allow full lung
Severe respiratory failure develops following trauma in one
expansion. As the atelectasis associated with rib fractures
of two settings: (I) direct chest injury leading to functional
increases with number and severity of fractures, so too
impairment of one or both lungs; or (II) indirect injury via a
does the risk of pneumonia, respiratory failure, and
multi-factorial inflammatory—mediated response to severe
death (5). This effect is particularly pronounced in the
extrathoracic injury.
elderly population, for whom the presence of rib fractures
conveys a mortality of at least 20% (6).
Direct lung injury from trauma Management of blunt chest trauma generally focuses on
pain control and pulmonary toilet in an effort to prevent
Blunt chest injury
respiratory failure. Treatment of pneumothorax and
Pulmonary contusion represents a common cause of hemothorax with tube thoracostomy or surgical drainage,

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Page 2 of 9 Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, 2018

when needed, optimizes pulmonary function. High level Indirect lung injury in severe trauma
evidence for the optimal approach to these issues is lacking,
In addition to direct traumatic injury to the thorax, severe
however, as noted in a recent Eastern Association for
extrathoracic injury can lead to respiratory failure through
the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) Practice Management
a variety of mechanisms. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has a
Guideline providing only conditional recommendations,
close association with respiratory failure, with up to 1/3 of
based on low quality evidence, for epidural and multi-
severe TBI patients developing some degree of respiratory
modal analgesia (7). In the absence of strong evidence, the
failure (14) and roughly 8% of patients with head
generally accepted strategies of optimizing pain control and
abbreviated injury score (AIS) of 4 or greater developing
minimizing atelectasis seem to be appropriate.
ARDS (15,16). Acute respiratory failure from TBI can
Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIV) using
arise from impaired respiratory drive due to neural injury.
continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or bilevel
Additionally, a syndrome of severe respiratory failure can
positive airway pressure (BIPAP), as well as high flow nasal
arise from a complex interaction between the injured brain
cannula oxygen therapy, are sometimes used in an effort to
prevent respiratory embarrassment following blunt thoracic and injured lungs. The mechanisms underlying this brain-
trauma. Though commonly used, strong data is lacking for lung “cross-talk” association highlight the complex multi-
the use of these modalities in the treatment of blunt chest factorial nature of the care of severely injured patients.
injury. Four randomized controlled trials (8-11), as well TBI induces increased endothelial permeability at both
as several retrospective cohort studies and observational the blood-brain and the blood-lung barriers (17,18), and
studies, have investigated the use of NIV in chest trauma. increased intracranial pressure has been shown to induce
A meta-analysis of these trials (12) suggested that NIV pulmonary edema (19,20). It is also important to note that
may improve mortality, decrease intubation rate, decrease conversely, lung injury can worsen brain injury. Animal
intensive care unit length of stay, improve oxygenation studies suggest that the hippocampus, which plays an
and respiratory rate. These results should be interpreted important role in cognition, is particularly vulnerable (21)
with caution, however, as the included studies displayed to this type of injury.
considerable heterogeneity and a paucity of high quality Fat embolism from long bone fractures leads to lung
data. Additional research is needed to further delineate injury via an incompletely understood pathophysiologic
these modalities’ roles in the management of blunt chest mechanism, most probably related to fat emboli occluding
injury, but in the absence of convincing evidence they are the microvasculature and triggering an inflammatory
still employed with some frequency. response (22).
Venous thrombosis can lead to pulmonary embolus,
sometimes even in the immediate post-injury setting.
Penetrating chest injury One series noted 0.5% of initial trauma CT scans of the
Like blunt injury, penetrating thoracic injury can chest showed evidence of pulmonary embolus (23). Other
lead to respiratory failure. In addition to the systemic series have documented the relatively common nature of
inflammatory mediated respiratory failure observed pulmonary emboli in the trauma population, highlighting
in severe injuries to other compartments, penetrating the fact that these emboli often occur early after the
thoracic injury can affect lung parenchyma directly. traumatic insult (24). While some uncertainty remains
In cases where surgical treatment is required, rates of regarding the optimal management of these embolic events,
respiratory failure and death vary according to the extent in the setting of associated severe respiratory failure, the
of lung resection required, with the highest mortality goals of treatment are similar—maintain lung recruitment
in cases requiring pneumonectomy (62%), as compared and gas exchange while minimizing ventilator induced lung
to lobectomy (35%) or wedge resection (22%) in one injury.
series of 669 patients (13). The lung-protective strategies Severely injured trauma patients frequently require blood
highlighted throughout this review apply to penetrating product transfusion. Blood product transfusion requirement
lung trauma as well, as avoidance of further injury to the directly correlates with risk of ARDS, both for the
traumatized lung, with maintenance of function of spared administration of packed red blood cells and fresh frozen
lung, is desirable. plasma (25-27). Some authors have shown that transfusion

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Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, 2018 Page 3 of 9

of blood products in critically ill or injured patients doubles pressure beyond 30 cmH2O. This approach has been shown
the risk for the development of acute lung injury in the to have a mortality benefit.
6–72 hours after the transfusion (28), and this risk increases Proponents of an “open lung” approach to management
with each unit of blood products transfused. In patients of injured lungs often advocate for use of relatively higher
with hemorrhagic shock, appropriate administration of levels of PEEP in addition to the low tidal volume approach
blood products clearly must be performed, but in light of to ventilation. The physiologic reasoning behind this
the increased risk of lung injury and infection, unnecessary approach is that higher PEEP should maintain recruited
transfusion should be fervently avoided. In the absence of lung units and recruit additional lung units, providing
active bleeding, a restrictive blood transfusion strategy in a higher functional residual capacity and minimizing
critically ill patients is clearly supported by the available atelectotrauma. Despite demonstrating improved
literature (29). oxygenation with a higher PEEP strategy, several studies
have failed to demonstrate a mortality benefit to this
approach (33-35). A recent multi-center, randomized
Lung protection in severe respiratory failure
controlled trial further called into question the high
Respiratory support in the setting of both direct and PEEP strategy (36). In this study, the use of an aggressive
indirect traumatic lung injury share the same management recruitment maneuver was paired with a stepwise PEEP
goals prioritized in care of other forms of respiratory titration. The results of the study, with higher mortality in
failure: optimization of ventilation, oxygenation, and the recruitment maneuver/high PEEP group, highlights
ventilation/perfusion matching, while avoiding ventilator the potential hazards of suboptimal PEEP or recruitment
associated lung injury. A considerable body of background maneuvers. It is unclear which portion of the study’s open
work in both animal and human studies has established lung protocol conferred the increased mortality (recruitment
several pathways by which ventilator associated lung injury maneuvers or higher PEEP levels). One explanation for
can occur. Alveolar overdistension predisposes patients to the inability to demonstrate mortality benefit with higher
pneumothorax, pulmonary edema (30), and translocation levels of PEEP may involve the concept of driving pressure.
of inflammatory mediators and bacteria. When ventilation Driving pressure, determined by the tidal volume and
volumes are low, lung injury occurs via the opening and compliance, can be calculated by subtracting the PEEP from
closing of alveoli, known as atelectotrauma, with similarly the plateau pressure. In a recent patient level analysis of
injurious effects. These injurious forces result in surfactant patients from the ARDSNet data set, Amato and colleagues
dysfunction, sloughing of bronchial epithelium, and the demonstrated a survival benefit to patients managed with
release of inflammatory mediators which directly injure the lower driving pressures (37). When PEEP was increased
lung and can lead to systemic inflammation, multi organ with no associated decrease in driving pressure, no mortality
dysfunction, and death (31). benefit was found. This may help to explain the lack of
In traumatic conditions such as pulmonary contusion, survival benefit to higher PEEP noted in prior studies—
pulmonary laceration, and bronchial disruption, a loss increasing the PEEP may only be helpful if it decreases the
of homogeneity occurs in the lung, with healthy areas driving pressure. The question of what is the optimal PEEP
receiving more ventilation than injured lung units. This for each individual patient remains challenging.
mimics the findings noted in ARDS, in which some areas,
particularly dependent portions of the lung, are poorly
Prone positioning
expanded, while other areas become overdistended. In many
cases, the pathophysiology, and therefore the management, Prone positioning has been used to optimize ventilator
of direct thoracic trauma mimics that of ARDS. support in patients with severe respiratory failure. By
Since the ARDSNet trial (32), the mainstays of ARDS decreasing the effect of the weight of the lungs, heart, and
management have focused on avoidance of ventilator chest wall on the dependent posterior aspects of the lungs,
induced lung injury. This has manifest in the use of lower aeration of these atelectatic segments can occur more easily.
tidal volume ventilation and permissive hypercapnia. Several investigations into the use of prone positioning
The ARDSNet protocol includes use of tidal volumes of for ARDS demonstrated physiologic benefits, including
6–8 mL/kg of PBW, uses standardized PEEP/FiO2 ratios improved oxygenation (38,39) and decreased ventilator-
based on oxygenation, and avoids elevation of the plateau induced lung injury (40,41). These physiologic benefits

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Page 4 of 9 Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, 2018

presumably stemmed from increasing end expiratory lung management strategies are usually used in brain injured
volume, with associated improvement in V/Q matching and patients as well.
decreased ventilator-induced lung injury.
Building on this work, the PROSEVA trial (42), a
Fluid management
randomized, controlled investigation of prone positioning in
moderate to severe ARDS, demonstrated a mortality benefit Essential to the management of severe respiratory failure,
to the use of prone positioning. Patients were positioned particularly in the severely injured trauma patient, is proper
prone for 16 hours per day. The results of the foundation fluid management. A conservative fluid management
work on physiologic benefits, compounded by the mortality strategy was shown in a randomized trial to improve lung
benefit noted in PROSEVA, led to the inclusion of a strong function and decrease duration of mechanical ventilation
recommendation for prone positioning by the 2017 ATS/ in patients with acute lung injury (48), without impacting
ESICM/SCCM international consensus guidelines for non-lung organ failure. Restrictive fluid administration
management of ARDS (43). has been associated with decreased rates of VAP (49), and,
Of note, exclusion criteria of the PROSEVA trial when combined with damage control techniques, has been
pertinent to the trauma population included ICP >30, associated with improved operative mortality (50).
unstable fractures of the spine, femur, or pelvis, burn >20% While intravenous fluid therapy is commonly used in
TSBA, facial trauma, and recent sternotomy or anterior severely injured patients in order to mitigate kidney injury,
chest tube presence with active air leak. Accordingly, excess fluid administration and its associated elevated venous
extrapolation of the benefits of prone positioning to pressures may in fact worsen kidney function through
patients meeting these criteria should be performed with increased renal parenchymal congestion (51). Analogous to
caution. The improved oxygenation associated with prone the brain-lung interactions described above, the lungs and
positioning has been reproduced in trauma patients without kidneys interact via similar “crosstalk” mechanisms whereby
associated adverse effects (44). At many trauma centers, injury to one organ affects the function of the other. In
prone positioning is frequently used in trauma patients with totality, these and other studies highlight the importance
severe respiratory failure, and the best available evidence of extremely judicious fluid management in the setting of
suggests that it is safe in the trauma population as well as in severe traumatic respiratory failure. Optimization of fluid
patients who underwent abdominal surgery (45). management can be facilitated through the use of critical
care ultrasound. Multiple approaches have been described,
including the use of bedside echocardiography and the use
Lung protective strategies in the presence of brain injury
of lung ultrasound to detect development of pulmonary
The presence of TBI complicates the management of edema (52).
severe respiratory failure, as the priorities of avoiding
worsening brain injury and avoiding ventilator induced
Alternative modes of ventilation in severe
lung injury can be construed as being in conflict. Where
respiratory failure
ARDSNet protocols allow permissive hypercapnia in an
effort to reduce ventilator induced lung injury, the desire to High frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV), a mode
protect blood flow regulation in the injured brain mandates characterized by the high frequency application of very
maintenance of pCO2 in the normal range. Additionally, small tidal volumes, should theoretically produce minimal
theoretical concern exists regarding the use of higher PEEP, ventilator induced lung injury. For some time, considerable
owing to presumed risk of worsening elevated intracranial enthusiasm existed for the mode’s application in severe
pressure by impairing venous return. In practice, however, respiratory failure, including from traumatic injury.
as long as the MAP is maintained, increased levels of PEEP Unfortunately, two recent large randomized controlled
do not appear to significantly impact cerebral perfusion trials failed to show benefit to the use of HFOV (53,54), so
pressure or even intracranial pressure (46). High tidal the mode has begun to fall out of favor.
volumes were found to be associated with increased risk VDR, the volumetric diffusive respirator, has been used
of acute lung injury in patients with brain injury (47). as rescue therapy for refractory ARDS. This ventilator uses
Generally speaking, what is best for the injured lung is a high frequency percussive mechanism to deliver pulses
best for the injured brain, so “lung-protective” ventilator of gas. These high frequency pulses create a “to and fro”

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Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, 2018 Page 5 of 9

effect well-suited to clearance of the airways. Naturally, the heparin coated system (58). Other large, single institution
mode was applied to burn/inhalational injuries, where the series have reported survival to hospital discharge rates
airway clearance benefits were most pronounced. Because of 44–70%, with bleeding complication rates up to 35%
many burn centers also care for other trauma patients, VDR (59-62). Guirand et al. compared trauma patients supported
ventilation remains a regularly utilized approach in the with ECMO at Wake Forest School of Medicine to
trauma population. patients supported with mechanical ventilation at Los
In airway pressure release ventilation (APRV), a CPAP Angeles County and University of Southern California
is applied, with intermittent releases to allow for convective Medical Center to assess whether ECMO was associated
CO 2 removal. The patient can spontaneously breathe with a survival benefit (63). The patients supported with
throughout the entirety of the cycle. The key to success ECMO had higher Murray Lung Injury Scores, lower
in the use of APRV lies in the proper choice of release PaO2/FiO2 ratios, higher rate of open abdomens, higher
time. When the release time is set too short, convective rate of renal replacement therapy, and higher pre-ECMO
CO2 removal is inadequate and the patient can become fluid balance reflecting the overall worse condition of
very uncomfortable. When the release time is set too long, patients selected to undergo ECMO support. The rates of
excessive exhalation occurs, resulting in large tidal volumes survival to discharge were 58% and 55% for the ECMO
and atelectotrauma, loss of lung homogeneity, and the type and mechanical ventilations groups, respectively. When
of ventilator-induced lung injury shown to be harmful by the investigators adjusted for fluid balance, PaO2/FiO 2
ARDSNet. Guidelines for setting APRV settings can be ratios, Murray Lung Injury Score, open abdomen, renal
found in multiple sources (55), but it is the authors’ opinion replacement therapy, hemorrhagic complications (15% of
that the mode, when set correctly, is a highly effective ECMO patients suffered complications), and pulmonary
ventilatory strategy both for the treatment and prevention complications a survival benefit associated with ECMO
of ARDS. support was observed. The survival benefit associated with
ECMO should be interpreted with caution because the trial
was not randomized and the risk of confounding factors
Extracorporeal support
unaccounted for by the statistical analysis is great.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a TBI is not an absolute contraindication to ECMO
salvage therapy for patients with hypoxemia refractory to support. Muellenbach et al. described support of 3 patients
mechanical ventilation. The use of ECMO for a trauma with TBI using ECMO without anticoagulation for 5, 1,
patient was first described in 1972 by Hill et al. (56). Since and 2 days without thromboembolic events (64). Additional
then, numerous case reports and small case series and a cases of supporting patients with TBI with ECMO report
few large case series have described strategies for the use delaying or holding anticoagulation or attaining lower aPTT
of ECMO for trauma patients, the complications suffered goals (65-68). Particularly with the use of veno-venous
by those patients, and have attempted to identify factors ECMO, delaying or avoiding systemic anticoagulation
associated with survival to hospital discharge. is performed at many centers. No large, single series has
No randomized trials of ECMO have been conducted focused on ECMO for patients with TBI, but many of the
exclusively for populations of trauma patients. The best large trials include patients with traumatic brain injuries
data come from retrospective analyses, the largest of and no increased risk of mortality has been found (59,62,69).
which include 10 to 46 patients. Anderson et al. reported ECMO has even been successfully employed during and
the support of 24 trauma patients, 12 of whom were shortly after decompressive craniotomy (70,71). Despite
adults, with ECMO at the University of Michigan (57). measures to reduce anticoagulation duration or intensity,
Seventeen patients were liberated from the ECMO circuit there remains a risk of cerebrovascular complications
and 15 (63%) survived to discharge. All patients were for trauma patients supported with ECMO as high as
anticoagulated with heparin infusions. Major bleeding 14–16% (60,69).
complications occurred in 75% of patients and 20.8% of ECMO has also been used to support patients with
patients had cerebral infarcts or hemorrhage. In 2010, endobronchial hemorrhage (72,73), aortic injuries (74-76),
Arlt et al. at University Hospital Regensburg, Germany bronchial transections (77-82), and drowning (83,84).
showed ECMO could support patients with respiratory Once considered too unsafe, ECMO has proved to be
failure also suffering hemorrhagic shock by using a a valuable tool to support and salvage patients who likely

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Page 6 of 9 Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, 2018

would not have survived with conventional mechanical management. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2003;24:133-8.
ventilation. Reports have expanded ECMO to not only 6. Bergeron E, Lavoie A, Clas D, et al. Elderly trauma
trauma patients in general, but also to patients with injuries patients with rib fractures are at greater risk of death and
once thought to be absolute contraindications to ECMO pneumonia. J Trauma 2003;54:478-85.
support. Further improvements in care may be made by 7. Galvagno SM Jr, Smith CE, Varon AJ, et al. Pain
defining which patients are most likely to benefit from management for blunt thoracic trauma: A joint practice
ECMO or those beyond the capabilities of ECMO and management guideline from the Eastern Association
centralizing care for patients on ECMO in specialized for the Surgery of Trauma and Trauma Anesthesiology
units (85). Society. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2016;81:936-51.
8. Ferrer M, Esquinas A, Leon M, et al. Noninvasive
ventilation in severe hypoxemic respiratory failure: a
Conclusions
randomized clinical trial. Am J Respir Crit Care Med
Severe respiratory failure represents a considerable 2003;168:1438-44.
problem in patients with complex traumatic injuries. 9. Hernandez G, Fernandez R, Lopez-Reina P, et al.
Optimal management of these patients requires a thorough Noninvasive ventilation reduces intubation in chest
understanding and application of the pathophysiology of trauma-related hypoxemia: a randomized clinical trial.
the complex interactions between the lungs and multiple Chest 2010;137:74-80.
organ systems. Many questions remain unanswered and the 10. Bolliger CT, Van Eeden SF. Treatment of multiple
field is ripe with areas in need of additional investigation. rib fractures. Randomized controlled trial comparing
ventilatory with nonventilatory management. Chest
1990;97:943-8.
Acknowledgements
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None. study of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)
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Footnote
12. Chiumello D, Coppola S, Froio S, et al. Noninvasive
Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest ventilation in chest trauma: systematic review and meta-
to declare. analysis. Intensive Care Med 2013;39:1171-80.
13. Martin MJ, McDonald JM, Mullenix PS, et al. Operative
management and outcomes of traumatic lung resection. J
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doi: 10.21037/jeccm.2018.01.08
Cite this article as: Noorbakhsh MR, Kriley IR. Management
of severe respiratory failure in complex trauma patients. J
Emerg Crit Care Med 2018;2:26.

© Journal of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine. All rights reserved. jeccm.amegroups.com J Emerg Crit Care Med 2018;2:26