HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Respond to This Article Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Van Saders, L. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Van Saders, L.

Clinical Critical Care Medicine
Richard K. Albert, Arthur Slutsky, V. Marco Ranieri, Antoni Torres, Jukka Takala. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby, Inc; 2006. 722 pages.

Reviewed by Lauren Van Saders RN, MS, CS, APRN, BC

Clinical Critical Care Medicine is a reference book for professionals working in the critical care environment. This book is written from the perspective of the global community in critical care and is geared toward the physician and mid-level provider such as the advanced practice nurse, dealing with critical care patients in their practice. Clinical Critical Care Medicine combines clinical guidance and basic science to help the provider effectively treat and manage critical care patients.

The opening chapters of the book deal with generic pathophysiological processes pertinent to critically ill patients such as inflammation, genetics, control of vascular tone, biologic response to stress, cellular metabolism, and tissue hypoxia. The following chapters include more organ-based conditions such as ventilator-associated lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute coronary syndromes, and cardiovascular emergencies, as well as management of traumatic brain injury and acute liver failure.

There is a short chapter on nursing issues in critically ill patients, including stress, infection, sensory imbalance and delirium, managing sleep and pain, and prevention of complications from immobility. Nursing skills are briefly touched on to include communication, eye care, and oral hygiene, patient positioning, maintaining nutritional intake, and managing bowel dysfunction, as well as weaning from mechanical ventilation.

The book is written by experts from around the world and offers evidence-based guidance for common problems pertinent to critically ill patients. Clinical Critical Care Medicine is easy to read and includes differential diagnosis tables, management algorithms, therapeutic implications flowcharts, and controversies boxes, if appropriate. Detailed discussions on mechanical ventilation, assessment for weaning, pregnancy-related critical care, and unusual critical care medicine conditions are also included.

As an advanced practice nurse, I found the book informative and easy to navigate according to symptomatology, diagnosis, and treatment of specific disease processes pertinent to critically ill adults. Pathophysiology is discussed in depth and the visual diagrams and pictures that accompany the information enhance the assimilation of the text. The material is up to date and evidence-based on specific research from an international perspective. The topics are pertinent to those the provider faces daily in the intensive care unit.

Lauren Van Saders is an associate professor of nursing at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Md. She is a certified advanced practice nurse specializing in the care of cardiovascular patients.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Respond to This Article Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Van Saders, L. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Van Saders, L.