Measuring the breathing workload in mechanically ventilated patients

Conclusion All the methods for the evaluation of the breathing workload in mechanically ventilated patients are subject to serious theoretical criticisms, due to the numerous assumptions and approximations on which they are based. Nevertheless they are of great interest in providing an objective evaluation of the ability of different forms of partial support ventilation to reduce the breathing workload. They have been applied successfully to assist-controlled ventilation [29, 30], SIMV [31], and pressure support ventilation [10, 11].Supported by a grant INSERM CNEP 89 CN 24