Why Critical Care Evolved METs? In early 2004, when Dr. Michael DeVita informed me that he was cons- ering a textbook on the new concept of Medical Emergency Teams (METs), I was surprised. At Presbyterian-University Hospital in Pittsburgh we int- duced this idea some 15 years ago, but did not think it was revolutionary enough to publish. This, even though, our fellows in critical care medicine training were all involved and informed about the importance of C- dition C (Crisis), as it was called to distinguish it from Condition A (Arrest). We thought it absurd to intervene only after cardiac...

Over the last 10 years the syndrome of severe acute renal failure has progressively changed in its epidemiology. It is now most frequently seen in critically ill patients, typically in the context of sepsis and multiorgan failure. This epidemiologic change has meant that intensive care physicians and nephrologists must now work in close cooperation at all times and must take many com plex issues of prevention, pathogenesis, and management into account that they did not previously have to tackle. Simultaneously, the last 10 years have seen the development of major technical and conceptual...