The main aim of this review was to describe the current knowledge of the application of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) in pears (Pyrus communis L.). The 1-MCP is an inhibitor of ethylene action that links at the receptor level. In this way, the 1-MCP delays ripening in climateric fruits and blocks all the ethylene dependent processes especially firmness loss and inhibits the aroma production in the treated pears. The treatment does not cause changes in sugar levels but may limit acid loss depending on different factors. At a physiological level, the treatment inhibits the metabolism of 1-aminocyclopropane 1-carboxylic acid (ACC) and also increases the total antioxidant potential of the pear mainly through an important increase of peroxidase activity. As a consequence, the 1-MCP treatment has significant effects on physiological disorders incidence. As in others fruits, the treatment clearly inhibits scald disorder but also some senescent-related disorders in pear such as internal breakdown and brown heart. The main problem that the pears treated with 1-MCP may suffer was found in their inability, for some reasons that are still inexplainable, to recover their ripening potential after storage. In this condition the fruits remain ‘evergreen’ and do not reach their optimal commercial ripeness. Recently, some studies have been carried out to find the conditions to recover this ripening ability in ‘evergreen’ pears. Post-storage ripening settings including the use of thermal treatments or exogenous ethylene have been tested. First interesting results are described in the literature but complementary experiments are needed in different cultivars before using 1-MCP in commercial stores.