An Overview of  Critical Care

Introduction

Residents rotating through intensive care often complain that they are unfamiliar with the nomenclature and disease processes which they encounter. This tutorial is an overview of intensive care medicine, and introduces a variety of concepts which we will expand upon in later sessions. The information included in this lesson is purposefully designed to be high yield, high impact; fuller explanations with clinical examples will follow later.

Patients are admitted because they have had or will have a major physiological derangement requiring either invasive monitoring or intensive interventions. These derangements include:

1. Hemodynamic insufficiency

2. Respiratory insufficiency.

3. Deteriorating level of consciousness or coma.

4. Fluid and electrolyte imbalance including renal dysfunction

The most common cause of one or all of these derangements is local or systemic infection. The purpose of intensive care is to reverse abnormal physiology, control the source of the problem and create a favorable healing environment. Critical care is about medicine (pathophysiology & therapeutic interventions), compassion and organization .

Learning objectives

• To introduce the type of disease processes encountered in intensive care
• To introduce the terminology commonly used to describe these processes

Please note: these tutorials are for personal study purposes only.  They are not currently peer reviewed, and no responsibility will be taken for mistakes or inaccuracies. Reproduction of information is forbidden. All material is copyrighted by the GasWorks Group.