Mechanical ventilation is the most widely used supportive technique in intensive care units. Several forms of external support for respiration have long been described to assist the failing ventilatory pump, and access to lower airways through tracheostomy or endotracheal tubes had constituted a major advance in the management of patients with respiratory distress. More recently, however, new "noninvasive" ventilation (NIV) techniques, using patient/ventilator interfaces in the form of facial masks, have been designed. The reasons for promoting NIV include a better understanding of the role of ventilatory pump failure in the indications for mechanical ventilation, the development of ventilatory modalities able to work in synchrony with the patient, and the extensive recognition of complications associated with endotracheal intubation and standard mechanical ventilation. NIV has been used primarily for patients with acute hypercapnic ventilatory failure, and especially for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this population, the use of NIV is associated with a marked reduction in the need for endotracheal intubation, a decrease in complication rate, a reduced duration of hospital stay and a substantial reduction in hospital mortality. Similar benefits have also been demonstrated in patients with asphyxic forms of acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema. In patients with primarily hypoxemic forms of respiratory failure, the level of success of NIV is more variable, but major benefits have also been demonstrated in selected populations with no contraindications such as multiple organ failure, loss of consciousness or haemodynamic instability. One important factor in success seems to be the early delivery of noninvasive ventilation during the course of respiratory failure. Noninvasive ventilation allows many of the complications associated with mechanical ventilation to be avoided, especially the occurrence of nosocomial infections. The current use of noninvasive ventilation is growing up, and is becoming a major therapeutic tool in the intensive care unit.