Andrew Rhodes – författare

A popular, practical and easy-to-use guide, Oxford Desk Reference: Critical Care second edition distils evidence, therapeutics, and a growing knowledge base in to one single resource. Using their expertise, the Editors have devised an invaluable clinical guide reflecting best practice and training pathways ensuring all key information is covered. Each topic is laid out in a concise entry allowing rapid access to information. The second edition includes new chapters on tissue perfusion monitoring, paediatric and maternal critical care as well as expanded coverage of cardiovascular monitoring, myocardial infarction and respiratory therapy techniques. New self-assessment questions support FFICM and EDIC (European Diploma of Intensive Care) revision as well as CME reflection. Covering the entire discipline in an easy-to-read format, this is the definitive clinical reference for critical care, ideal for trainees, consultants, advanced care practitioners, and nurses. It is a definitive everyday reference for on the Intensive Care Units, High Dependency Units, acute medical or surgical wards, Accident and Emergency departments, and operating theatres.

In recent years, many clinical interventions in intensive care medicine have been based on clear scientific evidence. However, at least as many clinical interventions still remain the subject of controversy, either due to a lack of rigorous data or due to the existence of conflicting data. In this book, these controversies are discussed by experts of international renown in their respective fields. The goal is twofold: To provide us with a balanced and unbiased presentation of the subject, explaining the different 'schools of thought' relevant to the controversy; To summarise the data with a clinically useful and valid recommendation for our practice. Virtually all fields of intensive care medicine are covered in over 50 chapters dealing with controversies over treatment options in acute illness states, organising and providing care for acutely ill patients, as well as how to answer ethical questions arising in critical care medicine every day.

The phrase "Primum non nocere" is almost as old as the practice of medicine. Together with the principles of beneficence, autonomy and justice, keeping in mind the confidence and dignity of the patient, it should constitute the basis of our behaviour as physicians and nurses. Since diagnostic and therapeutic interventions have become more complex and their risk/benefit ratio more difficult to access, the importance of safety and quality of care becomes more and more important. Avoiding the infliction of harm on our patients has become a priority. Patient safety is even viewed as a priority by the Presidency of the European Union. Physicians in intensive care medicine mostly deal with the most fragile and dependent of human beings, frequently at the extremes of age, with multiple co-morbid diseases, and with physiological derangements close to the limits of survival. These patients are often reliant on numerous invasive technologies for their survival. Moreover, the almost universal need for multiple pharmacological interventions, frequently in bundles and associations never scientifically tested before, places the critically ill patients at a very high risk of harm from the physician's interventions. The book is a valuable and useful education tool for physicians and nurses in intensive care medicine. It will help to improve the safety and overall care for critically ill patients.