[Home ventilatory support--retrospective view and perspectives].

Mechanical home ventilation is a child of this centuries polio epidemics. The tank respirator, or iron lung, signaled the beginning of the new era. Improved techniques like positive pressure ventilation via tracheostoma followed soon. Hypoventilation syndromes of various origin are more and more encountered thanks to better detection methods. They benefit from a new, efficient and noninvasive technique, the positive pressure ventilation via nasal mask.