Airway pressure release ventilation (APRV): do good things come to those who can wait?

The landmark moment for mechanical ventilation (MV) came with the polio epidemic in the 1950s, leading to the widespread use of MV around the world (1). While controlled MV was favoured over the next three decades, the 1980s witnessed a shift from controlled to augmented spontaneous MV. Such a paradigm change was driven by technical improvements in ventilators in terms of fast-reacting valves, microprocessors, better flow delivery, and better triggering.