After cardiac surgery, patients can have poor respiratory function and hemodynamics. The exact cause and contributing factors of this deterioration are not usually known and, often these patients demonstrate normal parameters at the end of surgery, but are significantly altered upon arrival in the ICU. Transportation of patients from the OR to the ICU is a period of significantly less intense monitoring and less well-controlled interventions (for example tidal volume (Vt) is largely arbitrary). Recent evidence suggests that the risk of intra-hospital transportation is significantly higher for ventilated patients than for all other patients. Some of this risk might be mitigated by the mode of ventilation because pulmonary and hemodynamic parameters are rarely measured during transportation. If the method used for ventilation and oxygenation during transport is important in maintaining stability upon presentation to the ICU, clinicians might choose one method over another. This would change clinical practice.