A Brief History of Artificial Ventilation

Abstract

Artificial Ventilation (AV) of the lungs to replace failed normal breathing goes back many thousands of years but the development of modern AV started in the seventeenth century, first with positive pressure ventilation, then by negative pressure methods to simulate normal breathing and finally in the twentieth century back to positive pressure ventilation which is now the clinical standard. AV may be delivered by a variety of methods ranging from simple expired air resuscitation through to complex computer-controlled machines now used in the intensive care units of hospitals. Mechanical ventilation over the past 50 years has followed increasingly divergent pathways, with the development of ICU ventilators operated by specialists along with a parallel development of simple portable emergency and transport ventilators which are designed to be used by medical, nursing and paramedical personnel who are not normally involved in ICU ventilation.

This chapter outlines the history of AV and airway management over the past 300 years with particular emphasis on the development of bag-valve and portable mechanical ventilators that are relevant to the further discussion in this book.