This webinar explores one of the most powerful mental models in respiratory physiology – the lung as an elastic “spring.” Building from fundamental principles, the session will clarify how compliance, airway resistance, and work of breathing interact, and how these concepts translate directly into bedside assessment and ventilator management in critically ill children.
Through a structured, physiology-driven approach, participants will revisit the distinction between static and dynamic compliance, understand how airway radius and flow influence resistance, and break down the elastic and resistive components of total work of breathing. The discussion will then connect these mechanisms to common disease states and practical decision-making in the PICU.
