Since its first publication in 1981, this book has been regarded by many as one of the foremost reference books on ventilation of the neonate. In the 22 years from that edition to this, many new modalities and strategies have been added to the clinician’s repertoire. However, while this fourth edition continues to cover those modalities in great detail, it has also evolved an editorial style in keeping with the drive to deliver evidence based medicine. The failure of numerous randomised controlled trials to define the optimum ventilatory modality is probably due to our inability to accurately delineate appropriate treatment groups. The trainee and practitioner …