Critical Care Medicine: An Algorithmic Approach

Book excerpt: Make confident, evidence-based decisions in everyday critical care practice with Critical Care Medicine: An Algorithmic Approach. This first-of-its-kind decision making tool provides concise, practical guidance on key aspects of critical care in the form of easy-to-follow diagnostic and treatment algorithms, diagrams, and tables. The unique format saves you time as it guides you through best practices and reliable data to improve patient outcomes in the ICU. Chapters cover a particular organ system and are organized by disorder for easy reference. Each chapter includes a brief overview of the disorder, diagnostic algorithms, treatment algorithms, potential complications and strategies for overcoming them, and supporting references. Helpful mnemonics and advice from critical care experts are provided throughout. Key topics include ventilatory failure: asthma and COPD; ABG analysis; pleural effusion; acute respiratory failure; infectious disease; psychiatric aspects of critical care; ARDS; pulmonary embolism; water, electrolytes, and acid-base disorders; and much more. Enhanced eBook version included with purchase. Your enhanced eBook allows you to access all of the text, figures, and references from the book on a variety of devices.