[Respiratory Failure: Innovations in Diagnostics and Therapy]

Acute and chronic respiratory failures require immediate diagnosis and preferably individualized ventilation therapy. If possible, non-invasive ventilation should be considered to avoid complications of invasive mechanical ventilation. Especially in patients with ARDS and moderate to severe cases, non-invasive ventilation may not be suitable and should not be used uncritically.Invasive mechanical ventilation parameters should be adjusted individually. In the future, additional parameters such as transpulmonary pressure, monitoring of regional ventilation using electrical impedance tomography could help to individualize ventilator settings. Problems include the lack of wide distribution of these techniques and automatic tools for data analyses are missing.So for today the best thing is to implement the current evidence consequently. This includes lung-protective ventilation with an adequate PEEP and a tidal volume between 6 and 8 ml/kg IBW and a limitation of peak pressure or driving pressure. According to this early mobilization and positioning including prone-position is important, same as a score-based sedation regime and an individualized volume therapy.