ABSTRACT
Severe pulmonary impairment can occur after traumatic brain injury or stroke. The resulting brain-lung interactions represent key points for the treatment and the subsequent outcome of the patient. Established treatment approaches, such as permissive hypercapnia and prone positioning, present the intensive care physician with divergent treatment goals in these patients with partially increased intracranial pressure. This case report series shows the instrument-based and noninstrument-based options for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in the simultaneous presence of intracranial pathologies. This includes equipment based therapies using extracorporeal CO2 elimination, special positioning maneuvers in specially designed hospital beds and positional maneuvers, such as prone positioning. With enhanced neuromonitoring it is possible to optimally adapt treatment measures focused on the lungs early and before secondary damage to the brain.
