Transpulmonary Pressure - Guided Mechanical Ventilation in Morbidly Obese ARDS Patients: a Feasibility Study.

A catheter-balloon system will be positioned and calibrated in all included patients. The second generation esogastric multifunction Nutrivent catheter (SIDAM, Mirandola, Italy) will be used. It allows both enteral nutrition of the patients and monitoring of esophageal and gastric pressures during several days. A connection line will be inserted between the catheter (either esophageal or gastric balloon port) and the auxiliary pressure port of the mechanical ventilator (General Electric, R860, available in each center). Numeric recording of the respiratory signals will be achieved via the OhmedaCom Research Tool software, helping for centralization of the analyses, therefore ensuring reproducibility of the results.