Samuel A. Tisherman, MD', Fritz Sterz, MD ' niversit of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 2 edical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria The use of hypothermia for a variety of therapeutic purposes has a long and erratic history. Hippocrates recommended the use of topical cooling to stop bleeding. Fay used cooling of the extremities for patients with tumors in the 1930s. It wasn't until the 1950s, when the effects of hypothermia on systemic oxygen metabolism became better defined, that systemic hypothermia became a commonly used modality, particularly for cardiac surgery. Hypothermia was used...

Brain Injury is the second volume in the book series, Molecular and Cellular Biology of Critical Care Medicine. In this volume, a group of internationally regarded experts in important areas of neuroscience and neurointensive care research address the molecular and cellular basis of acute brain injury.
This text covers acute brain injury within a context relevant to the care of patients with critical neurologic injuries such as cardiac arrest, trauma and stroke. It includes recent data pertaining to established pathways such as neurotransmission, exitotoxicity,...

Individualized dosing regimens specific to the patient, infection, bacteria, and antibiotic can optimize outcome. Integration of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data, called dual individualization, can be accomplished through the use of AUIe. AUIC dosing has been shown to predict bacteriological outcomes, hasten clinical outcomes, reduce the emergence of resistance, and be cost-effective. MPC dosing has been shown to predict the emergence of resistant submutants. AUIC and MPC information can provide guidance as to when low doses can be used, and when higher concentrations are required....

Acute lung injury (ALI) impacts patient care in every ICU in the world. Our collective understanding of this condition has grown immensely over the past decade but morbidity and mortality remain unacceptably high. To enhance the understanding of clinicians and researchers, this book addresses the pathophysiology of acute lung injury from a molecular and cellular standpoint; includes animal models of acute lung injury and points to potential therapeutic advances based on scientific findings. It is a concise compendium of the multiple pathways, mechanisms and molecules involved in the...