Fig. 7

Meta-analysis comparing trauma patients in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) in 15 university hospitals (bar and whiskers) using standard of care mechanical ventilation with patients that were placed on the time-controlled adaptive ventilation (TCAV) protocol immediately upon intubation (black circle). The injury severity score (ISS), a, shows that patients in the TCAV protocol (black circle) were in the upper quartile demonstrating that the positive effect was not due to the inclusion of less injured patients. Both the percentage of patients that developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS%), b, and the hospital mortality (In Hospital Mortality %), c,  were at the bottom of minimum (Min) of the bar and whisker. This study suggests that preemptive TCAV can significantly reduce ARDS incidence and mortality [47]