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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

A Novel Rescue Technique for Difficult Intubation and Difficult Ventilation
Published on: January 17, 2011
Simple Predictor of Minute Ventilation: Holliday-Segar Revisited
Priyankar Kumar Datta1, Ajisha Aravindan2, Jayanandan E Sreekumar3
1Department of Anaesthesiology, Pain Medicine and Critical Care, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Background:
Minute ventilation (MV) and calorific requirement (CR) are both functions of metabolic demand. The Holliday-Segar formula is a weight-based tool for predicting CR. This study was performed to derive an equation, based on the Holliday-Segar formula, for calculating resting MV from body-weight (BW), which is applicable for all age groups.
Methods:
MV for BW (obtained from Radford normogram) was plotted against CR for BW (as per Holliday-Segar formula), for BWs ranging from neonates to adults. From the scatter plot thus obtained, best-fit line, with the origin as intercept, was drawn. Linear regression analysis was used to obtain R2 coefficient and P value.
Results:
The plot of MV against CR yields a straight line passing through the origin with a slope = 46.87. R2 value is 0.98886, P < 0.001.
Conclusion:
MV can be easily and reliably estimated for all age groups from the equation: MV (mL/min) = 47 × CR (kcal/h).
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