Chapter 39 Abdominal surgical catastrophes Stephen J. Streat Intra-abdominal surgical catastrophes are common conditions in intensive care units (ICUs)1 and typically occur in elderly patients with comorbidity and reduced physiological…
Chapter 22 Intensive care after cardiac surgery Raymond F. Raper Coronary artery bypass surgery is one of the most frequently undertaken surgical procedures. Because of the prevalence of cardiac disease,…
Chapter 37 Severe acute pancreatitis Duncan LA. Wyncoll Acute inflammation of the pancreas produces a spectrum of symptoms, which may be mild and self-limiting, or reflect severe disease that leads…
Chapter 17 Adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation Peter T. Morley The incidence and outcomes of cardiac arrests appeared not to have changed dramatically over a number of decades. However, a number of…
Chapter 15 Lactic acidosis D J (Jamie) Cooper, Alistair D. Nichol Lactic acidosis is defined by convention as the combination of an increased blood lactate concentration (> 5 mmol/l) and…
Chapter 11 Shock – an overview Angela McLuckie DEFINITION Shock is a clinical state, with characteristic symptoms and signs, which occurs when an imbalance between oxygen supply and demand results…
Chapter 3 Severity of illness and likely outcome from critical illness Mark Palazzo At present scoring systems are not sufficiently accurate to make outcome predictions for individual patients. Clinical assessment…
Chapter 9 Clinical information systems David Fraenkel Clinical record-keeping requires an integrated system to manage the information, including its acquisition during clinical care, and archiving and availability for future clinical,…
Chapter 6 Critical care nursing John R. Welch, Chris Theaker NATURE AND FUNCTION OF CRITICAL CARE NURSING Nurses are the one round-the-clock constant for critically ill patients and their families,…
