What Is the Evidence Base for the Newer Ventilation Modes?

New ventilation modes are introduced as answers to current clinical conundrums but also as marketing tools. Rarely is a mode introduced with sound evidence from bench, animal, and patient testing. The industry cannot support the extensive testing required to demonstrate the superiority of a new mode or technique. Instead, clinicians often rely on their own experience and the results of small observational trials that show positive effects on surrogate variables such as oxygenation and work of breathing or less tangible variables such as patient comfort. This report reviews the newer ventilation modes and attempts to find the evidence among the claims and confusion.