Guidance for: Prone positioning in adult critical care (2019)

Summary

Guidance from the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and Intensive Care Society on prone positioning in adult critical care. It is hoped that the adoption of the guidance set out within this document will help improve safety and reduce complications associated with the prone positioning of mechanically ventilated patients.

This document also hopes to standardise the approach to manging a cardiac arrest in the prone position, and has some guidance on prone ventilation in ECMO patients as well as considerations for performing bronchoscopy in the prone position. Assuming adequate staffing and equipment is available, the intervention of prone positioning involves very low costs and provided additional patient complications and long-term injuries to staff do not occur, would almost certainly be a cost-effective intervention.