Respiratory Support in Intensive Care

Eds Keith Sykes, J D Young

BMJ Books, £30, pp 315

ISBN 0 7279 1379 4

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In 1543 Vesalius demonstrated that rhythmical inflation of the lungs would keep an animal with an open chest alive. It took a further 200 years before John Hunter's experiments resulted in the Royal Humane Society recommending the use of bellows in the resuscitation of the apparently drowned. The first attempts at respiratory support in hospital were confined to patients with normal lungs, usually those with neurological problems.

The early part of the last century saw many …