Acute Respiratory Failure in the Adult

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Abstract
Trends in Treatment of Acute Respiratory FailureFOR several years after paralytic poliomyelitis became a rare disease, the use of artificial ventilation in treatment of acute respiratory failure was infrequent. During the past decade this trend has rapidly changed.1 The yearly number of patients treated with prolonged artificial ventilation at the Massachusetts General Hospital, which in 1958 amounted to 66, is now 1400 to 1500. In 1971 such cases accounted for 7230 patient days. Over the past decade more than 7000 patients have been so treated.Where and by whom should the burgeoning number of patients requiring artificial ventilation be . . .