Respiratory failure is a complex disease process whereby the underlying disease and therapeutic measures interact. This book contains an extensive bibliographic review, focusing on preventive and therapeutic studies, that was methodologically standardized, with authors assessing and classifying studies according to statutes of evidence-based medicine. It considers the epidemiology and outcome of mechanical ventilation; addresses ventilator modes and utility of pulmonary mechanics monitoring for treatment; analyzes physiologic effect and patient-outcomes of pulmonary recruitment and lung protective ventilation procedures; describes complications that can be present in these patients such as ventilator-associated pneumonia and useful methods to prevent respiratory infections; covers the impact of bronchodilators, corticosteroids, and antibiotics in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; discusses how, when, and in whom to do tracheostomy; and evaluates the use of sedation and neuromuscular blockade as well as current clinical trials in acute lung injury.