Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)

There are two forms of respiratory distress syndrome: ARDS and Infant respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a medical condition occurring in critically ill patients characterized by widespread inflammation in the lungs. ARDS is not a particular disease, rather it is a clinical phenotype which may be triggered by various pathologies such as trauma, pneumonia and sepsis. Infant respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS), also called neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory distress syndrome of newborn, or increasingly surfactant deficiency disorder (SDD), and previously called hyaline membrane disease (HMD), is a syndrome in premature infants caused by developmental insufficiency of pulmonary surfactant production and structural immaturity in the lungs.