Respiratory failure is a common critical illness in clinical practice. Patients with reduced partial pressure of oxygen and oxygen saturation have a high mortality rate, and improving pulmonary ventilation is one of the important clinical treatments for respiratory failure. Mechanical ventilation is an important adjunctive therapy to relieve the patient’s respiratory distress, which can, to a certain extent, relieve the dysfunction of pulmonary ventilation, maintain the patency of the airway, and prevent hypoxia and carbon dioxide accumulation in the body. Respiratory failure does not necessarily require a ventilator. It depends on the type and severity of the respiratory failure, whether the causes of respiratory failure can be removed in time, and whether the condition can be improved by non-mechanical ventilation methods. If the patient is clear and can cooperate with the physician, he or she can be ventilated by different forms of oxygenation and non-invasive mechanical ventilation, and if the result is not good, invasive mechanical ventilation can be changed.