Critical Care Toxicology

Numerous references describe the initial treatment of the acutely poisoned patient; however, this new book is the first major critical care toxicology resource that details patient care from hospital admission and treatment all the way through stabilization, monitoring, and discharge. It presents practical, state-of-the-art treatment recommendations based on initial and subsequent presentation of symptoms, and describes when it's safe to discharge the patient.

This issue of Critical Care Clinics, guest edited by Dr. Janice L. Zimmerman, focuses on Toxicology. This is one of four issues each year selected by the series consulting editor, Dr. John Kellum. Articles in this issue include, but are not limited to: Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic principles for toxicology, Use of extracorporeal techniques in poisonings, Drugs of Abuse, Cardiovascular Drug Toxicity, Anticoagulant and Anti-platelet Drug Toxicity and Psychotropic Agents.

"Building on the previous edition with contributions from internationally renowned experts this book provides a fully comprehensive resource for managing the post emergency/treatment stage of acute poisoning. Chapters incorporate evidence-based paradigms with up-to-date citations from the original medical literature. Topic areas covered include: diagnosis and management of the critically poisoned patient, including pediatric patients and poisoning in pregnancy; toxic syndromes including hepatoxic and pulmonary syndromes as well as poisonings from medications, drugs of abuse, chemical and biological agents. This book is an essential resource for Clinical Toxicologists, Intensivists and Emergency Medicine specialists in training and in practice." - Prové de l'editor.

This critical care toxicology resource details patient care from hospital admission and treatment all the way through stabilization, monitoring, and discharge. It presents practical, state-of-the-art treatment recommendations based on initial and subsequent presentation of symptoms, and describes when it's safe to discharge the patient. Individual sections comprehensively cover general management of the critically poisoned patient, toxic syndromes, poisoning by medications, drugs of abuse, chemical agents, biological toxins, agents of chemical and biological terrorism, and antidotes.

Critical care medicine is a relatively new specialty. Over the past few decades, we have seen an enormous growth in the number of inten sive care units (ICUs) worldwide. Medical students, residents, fellows, attending physicians, critical care nurses, pharmacists, respiratory ther apists, and other health-care providers (irrespective of their ultimate field of practice) will spend several months or years of their profes sional lives taking care of critically ill or severely injured patients. These clinicians must have special training, experience, and compe tence in managing complex problems in their patients. In addition, they must interpret the data obtained by many kinds of monitoring devices, and they must integrate this information with their knowl edge of the pathophysiology of disease. This handbook was written for every practitioner engaged in criti cal care medicine. We have attempted to present basic and generally accepted clinical information and some important formulas as well as laboratory values and tables that we feel will be useful to the practi tioner of critical care medicine. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the ICU. Chapters 2 through 18 follow an outline format and are divided by organ system (i. e. , neurologic disorders, cardiovascular dis orders), as well as special topics (i. e. , environmental disorders, trauma, toxicology). In addition, many of these chapters review some useful facts and formulas systematically. Finally, Chapters 19 and 20 supply lists of pharmacologic agents and dosages commonly used in the ICU and laboratory values relevant to the ICU.

This book provides a review of current clinical knowledge of critical care. It covers the spectrum of critical care topics, from pathophysiology to intensive care management.