Introduction:

The mechanical forces generated during mechanical ventilation by the interaction between the ventilator and the respiratory system can damage the lung in a process that has been called ventilator induced injury. The degree of injury has been related to the amount of energy transferred from the mechanical ventilator to the respiratory system within a given period of time, called mechanical power, experimental data based on tomographies suggest that mechanical power greater than 12 J/min could generate injury. It is projected as another variables to control within lung protection strategies, determining in experimental studies as an energy threshold from which mechanical changes in the lung begin that can lead to ventilator induced injury.

Material and methods:

A retrospective, analytical, comparative study was carried out. All patients with a diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia who required invasive mechanical ventilation were admitted; In a period of time between March-August 2021, they were admitted to the intensive care unit and used mechanical power as a variable to predict mortality.

Results:

The studied population consisted of 67 patients; the association between high mechanical power at 48 hours and mortality was evaluated, it was documented that 49.25% (n = 33) of the patients who maintained high mechanical power in 48 hours died, 28.35% (n = 19) with power high mechanical was not associated with mortality, 8.95% (n = 6) who did not have high mechanical power calculation died and 13.43% (n = 9) of patients with mechanical power less than 12 J/min survived. An association test was performed with Pearson’s χ2 in which a p value of 0.105 was obtained, so there is no statistically significant difference and the association between the mortality of the patients is not corroborated. with high mechanical power (> 12 J/min) at 48 hours.

Conclusion:

Mechanical power can be considered as another variable to control as a lung protection strategy for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, based on the fact that the energy transmitted to the lung has a greater impact on patients who receive mechanical ventilation for an interval time greater than seven days, with an average stay in the intensive care unit 12.3 + 6.2 days and the average days of invasive mechanical ventilation 9.2 + 5.6.