Current Concepts In Adult Critical Care 2012 Edition

Current Concepts in Adult Critical Care offers cutting-edge information on the latest issues facing ICU practitioners. It is updated annually and is used as a companion to the Current Concepts course held each year at the Critical Care Congress. Each chapter focuses on clinical challenges immediately pertinent to the critical care practitioner. Current Concepts in Adult Critical Care includes a range of study tools such as learning objectives, key terms, and a list of current references in bibliographic form.

The origin of modern intensive care units (ICUs) has frequently been attributed to the widespread provision of mechanical ventilation within dedicated hospital areas during the 1952 Copenhagen polio epidemic. However, modern ICUs have developed to treat or monitor patients who have any severe, life-threatening disease or injury. These patients receive specialized care and vital organ assistance such as mechanical ventilation, cardiovascular support, or hemodialysis. ICU patients now typically occupy approximately 10% of inpatient acute care beds, yet the structure and organization of these ICUs can be quite different across hospitals. In The Organization of Critical Care: An Evidence-Based Approach to Improving Quality, leaders provide a concise, evidence-based review of ICU organizational factors that have been associated with improved patient (or other) outcomes. The topics covered are grouped according to four broad domains: (1) the organization, structure, and staffing of an ICU; (2) organizational approaches to improving quality of care in an ICU; (3) integrating ICU care with other healthcare provided within the hospital and across the broader healthcare system; and (4) international perspectives on critical care delivery. Each chapter summarizes a different aspect of ICU organization and targets individual clinicians and healthcare decision makers. A long overdue contribution to the field, The Organization of Critical Care: An Evidence-Based Approach to Improving Quality is an indispensable guide for all clinicians and health administrators concerned with achieving state-of-the-art outcomes for intensive care.

This clinical casebook provides a comprehensive yet concise state-of-the-art review of adult critical care medicine. Presented in a case-based format, each case focuses on a scenario commonly encountered with an adult patient in the ICU. Case scenarios include management of seizures and acute intracranial hypertension, sepsis, liver failure, brain death, bleeding and thrombosis, and treating hospital acquired infections in the ICU. Written by experts in the field, Adult Critical Care Medicine: A Clinical Casebook is a valuable resource for critical care specialists and practitioners who treat adult patients in critical care settings.

This issue of Clinics in Plastic Surgery, guest edited by Drs. Charles Scott Hultman and Michael W. Neumeister, is devoted to Burn Care: Rescue, Resuscitation, Resurfacing. Articles in this comprehensive issue include: Lessons Learned from Major Disasters: From Cocoanut Grove to 9/11; Disaster Preparedness and Response in the 21st Century; Prevention, Advocacy, Legislation; 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teams:Integrating the Workforce; Financial Impact of Burns; Innovations in Burn Wound Assessment and Care; Hemodynamic Monitoring and Resuscitation; Management of Pulmonary Failure: From the VDR to ECMO; Infection Control: Iimmunosuppression and Management of HAIs; Neuro ICU and Perioperative Sedation/Analgesia; Nutrition, Metabolism, Endocrine; Patient Safety in Burn Patients: From the ICU to Rehab; Dermatologic Emergencies and the Role of the Burn Center; Pediatric Burn Care; Timing and Type of Excision:EBM Guidelines; Skin Substitutes and Bioscaffolds: Temporary and Permanent Coverage; Tissue Engineering and Stem Cells: Regeneration of the Skin and its Contents; Chemical, Electrical, and Radiation Injuries; Perineal Burns and Child Abuse; Negative Pressure Wound Therapy; Chronic Burn Wounds: HBO, Growth Factors, Marjolin's; and Acute Management of Hand Burns.