Anaesthesia, Pain, Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

A new interest in body positioning emerged when it was shown that placing the ARDS patient in the prone position frequently improved arterial oxygenation over that observed in the supine patient. Thus, body positioning can be used as a tool for improving oxygenation in severely ill patients. A lateral position with the ‘good lung down’ is a frequent component of treatment in unilateral lung disease, and a combination of lateral position and selective PEEP to the lower lung has been tried in bilateral lung disease. The improvement in oxygenation frequently seen raises

the question of what the mechanisms underlying potential improvement are?