A wide variety of patients requires mechanical ventilation; therefore, it is not surprising that numerous ventilators, ventilation modes, and equipment are necessary to select the most appropriate noninvasive ventilation technology for each patient. We voluntarily limited this chapter to positive pressure ventilation modes considering that negative pressure ventilation and abdominal pressure ventilation are used much less often now, and that no technological breakthrough has emerged in past years to improve or increase the use of these methods. We also do not present continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) considering that this mode does not actively produce or assist inspiration. However, CPAP ventilation shares similar equipment with other methods of positive pressure ventilation.
