Fig. 1

Mechanical power equations for volume-controlled and pressure-controlled ventilation. Six equations for the calculation of mechanical power are available to date. For volume-controlled ventilation, the extended equation proposed by Gattinoni et al. still represents the reference equation and the simplified equation proposed by the same group is a mathematical rearrangement of it, which means that the two formulas can be considered identical. The surrogate equation that we propose in this paper carries a small bias (underestimation), but also the advantage of being simple and easily available just by looking at the ventilator. For pressure-controlled ventilation, the two extended equations proposed by Van der Meijden et al. and by Becher et al. are both very accurate, but complex. As for our surrogate, the one proposed by Becher et al. carries a small bias (overestimation), but also the advantage of being simple and easily available just by looking at the ventilator