Noninvasive ventilation has been available for over 100 years. In the past 25 years, relatively lightweight, portable ventilators and comfortable interfaces have become available that have allowed for full-time noninvasive ventilation. In motivated individuals who have access to centers with expertise in nocturnal and diurnal ventilation, continuous noninvasive ventilation is quite feasible. Th...

OBJECTIVES a) To describe the introduction of noninvasive means to provide positive-pressure ventilation in acute respiratory failure; b) to describe the physiologic response to noninvasive ventilation; c) to review the current published literature on using noninvasive ventilation in patients with acute hypercapnic and/or hypoxemic respiratory failure; d) to describe the technique of applying m...