Participants
ARDS
ARDS
To be eligible for inclusion, patients had to be ≥ 18 year old and receiving invasive mechanical ventilation for < 5 days for polymerase-chain reaction-confirmed SARS-CoV-2-induced ARDS, according to the Berlin definition [According to the specifications of emergency consent, randomization was possible without a close relative’s or surrogate’s consent, but informed consent by the patient or patient’s relatives was obtained for all patients.