Introduction Tissue damage after surgery triggers a complex inflammatory response termed sterile inflammation characterized by the release of intracellular molecules into the extracellular environment leading to receptor-mediated immune signaling cascades….
The practices of anesthesiology, surgery, and critical care are continuously improving. Through advances in each field, a number of patients with increasingly severe comorbidities are undergoing riskier and more complex…
Abstract Mrs. Smith, a 24-year-old woman without prior past medical history, is admitted to the intensive care unit after a motor vehicle collision with ejection from the vehicle, during which…
Abstract Mr. Johnson is a 62-year-old man with no prior past medical history who is admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after suffering a large cryptogenic stroke in the…
Abstract A 43-year-old woman was an unrestrained passenger in a high-speed motor vehicle collision. She was found by emergency medical services to be poorly responsive, with hypotension, mild bradycardia, and…
Abstract Shared experiences are inherently challenging to measure and evaluate, and shared decision-making (SDM) in the context of critical illness is no exception. The shared nature of a decision is…
Abstract In 1959, shortly after the invention of positive pressure ventilation, Pierre Mollaret and Maurice Goulon published the first description of what would eventually be referred to as “brain death”…
Abstract Originating mostly in the world of oncology, palliative care has matured into a wide-ranging field aimed at improving the quality of life of all patients and their families facing…
Abstract “Unbefriended,” or “unrepresented,” patients are those who are unable to make their own decisions with regard to their medical care and lack an available surrogate decision maker. As we…
Abstract Advance directives (ADs) are legal documents that provide information on a patient’s preferences for care when seriously ill. ADs include two separate documents: a health-care power of attorney and/or…
