Pocket ICU Third Edition EPUB + CONVERTED PDF by Gyorgy Frendl MD PhD (Author)
Critical (intensive) care is inherently a multidisciplinary specialty. On
a daily basis, the practicing intensivist must integrate knowledge and
practices from many medical specialties (surgery, transplant
medicine, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, neurology,
anesthesiology, pain medicine, and many others) and collaborate
closely with medical professionals from many specialties (physicians,
nurses, physiotherapists, respiratory therapists, nutritionists,
pharmacists, etc.). Today’s critical care toolbox, thus, must include
not only the most up-to-date clinical knowledge but also
communication, team building, and management skills.
Since its inception in the 1950s polio era, critical care has
evolved into its own discipline with specialized caregivers, equipment
and clinical training, specific research topics, and an ability to care
for ever sicker patients. Due, in part, to the development of
worldwide critical care research networks, a robust evidence base
now exists to inform critical care practice and has allowed
intensivists to optimize the management of conditions common to
intensive care patients. Insights from this evidence base have
considerably improved survival from acute respiratory distress
syndrome (ARDS) and sepsis and advanced the development of
subspecialty intensive care units (ICUs; medical and surgical ICUs,
trauma, burn, transplant, neurologic, and cardiac ICUs among
others). In 2023, modern critical care not only involves
technologically advanced life support and therapeutic strategies for
acute illness but also focuses on longer-term quality of life and
outcome measures well beyond the ICU stay. The recent COVID
pandemic has further highlighted the importance of critical care and
served as an additional catalyst for investigation and discovery.
Our goal in this book is to organize this extensive body of
knowledge for our readers in an easy-to-view format. This
significantly updated and reorganized third edition is intended to
provide concise, evidence-based information for all critical (intensive)
care professionals, from students who are having their first
encounter with ICUs and critically ill patients to clinicians seeking a
quick update on topics they may not have encountered recently. The
50 chapters span the depth and breadth of acute care and, in
addition to basic critical care topics, include sections on bioweapons,
disaster preparedness, and COVID. To cover this wide diversity of
topics we solicited contributions from leading critical care experts,
incorporated recent evidence, improved the table of contents, and
compiled an index of particularly relevant topics for quick access. For
readers interested in the source data, we have included PubMed
indexing for easy reference. We are grateful for our authors’ clinical
insights and for sharing their many years of experience.
The rewards of providing care for the most critically ill are great.
With this book, we invite all of you for a great and satisfying
professional journey. We hope you find the result useful and
enlightening!
The editors would like to express their heartfelt appreciation to
Emily Crisfulla, BS, for her skillful management of the revision
process for the third edition of Pocket ICU.
GYORGY FRENDL, MD, PhD, FCCM
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
AVERY TUNG, MD, FCCM
The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Chicago, Illinois