Critical care clinics
-
Critical care clinics · Jan 1986
ReviewBlood transfusions and Jehovah's Witnesses. The impact of the patient's unusual beliefs in critical care.
This article explains the belief of Jehovah's Witnesses regarding blood transfusions, and argues that a physician must ethically respect that belief.
-
Critical care clinics · Jan 1986
Comparative StudyEthical decision making and the critical care team.
This article studies the process of decision making used to arrive at decisions to withdraw treatment in the adult and neonatal intensive care unit. The emerging role of team decision making is described as a cumulative process of dialogue between the health care team and the patient's family (including the patient in some cases).
-
This article reviews the cardiac sequelae of blunt chest injury. Major cardiac injuries of blunt chest trauma involve damage to the myocardium, although pericardial disease, valvular heart disease, and coronary artery disease may result. Recognition of the various syndromes associated is discussed, and a synthesis of diagnostic and management strategies for speculation is provided.
-
Hypovolemic shock is the most common form of shock seen clinically and has attracted the greatest laboratory interest. It is caused by a sudden decrease in the intravascular blood volume relative to the vascular capacity, to the extent that effective tissue perfusion cannot be maintained. The authors of this article discuss the pathophysiology of hypovolemic shock, the assessment of the patient in shock, the immunologic consequences of shock, impairment of cardiac function in hypovolemic shock, and the management of hypovolemic shock.