Induction of severe hypoxemia and low lung recruitability for the evaluation of therapeutic ventilation strategies: a translational model of combined surfactant-depletion and ventilator-induced lung injury.

Addition of transitory injurious ventilation after lung lavage causes prolonged acute lung injury with diffuse alveolar damage and low recruitability yielding high titrated PEEP levels. Mimicking lung mechanical and functional characteristics of ARDS, this porcine model rectifies the constraints of single-hit lavage models and may enhance the translation of experimental research on mechanical ventilation strategies.