Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is a treatment option for patients with inadequate oxygen delivery. Inadequate oxygen delivery can result from either ineffective oxygenation from severe lung disease or ineffective cardiac…
The main indications for hemodynamic monitoring in critical care are the identification of the type of shock, guidance of therapeutic interventions, and the cardiopulmonary evaluation of the patient with respiratory…
To address the question whether ventilators damage lungs, one must first understand several commonly used related terms. Ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) denotes acute lung damage that develops during mechanical ventilation….
“Weaning” refers to the transition from full mechanical ventilatory support to spontaneous ventilation with minimal support. “Liberation” refers to discontinuation of mechanical ventilation. This chapter focuses on the clinical assessment…
The rapid expansion of medical knowledge and the advances in surgical techniques, drug treatments, and interventions make it possible to treat conditions that would have been untreatable only 50 years…
Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) has assumed an important role in the intensive care unit (ICU), with increasing use during the past 15 years. It is now considered the ventilatory mode of…
Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the contributions of Drs. Jason Brainard and Clifford Deutschman, who authored a previous edition of this chapter. The specific indications for endotracheal intubation are difficult to…
This topic covers an area of rapidly evolving research. As such, an exhaustive approach is guaranteed to be outdated by publication. Therefore this chapter seeks to provide an approach to…
Over the past 50 years, critical care medicine has rapidly developed into a complex, resource-intensive, and multidisciplinary field. The care of patients has evolved with implementation of new monitoring devices…
Evidence-based medicine, in existence for just over two decades, has resulted in monumental changes in critical care medicine. In the last 20 years, practice has shifted from a reliance on…
