ABSTRACT
The decade of the 1960s heralded the era when assisted ventilation was used to treat respiratory failure in this country. The development of techniques to prevent patients from dying of cardiovascular collapse following World War II, and renal failure following the Korean War, allowed the lung to emerge as the ‘‘failing’’ organ during the Vietnam War (1). During this time, intensive care units became abundant and the technology of artificial ventilation advanced in infants and adults. The culmination of this progress in medical management and equipment development gave rise to two diseases, one affecting infants, the other adults: namely, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), both described in the February 16, 1967 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. At the time, oxygen was not widely recognized to be a severe cellular injurant, and the consequences of tissue barotrauma induced by high airway pressures were not well defined.
