In recent years, intensive care and emergency medicine have emerged as new medical specialties. Better understanding of acute illness and continuous advances in technology have fostered rapid development of new forms of therapy. This volume provides updates in this rapidly expanding field and includes various topics presented by recognized experts in the field.

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Circulatory Failure: The Importance of Tissue Oxygen Supply.- Cardiocirculatory Control Mechanisms in Health and Disease.- Can Primary Resuscitation Therapy Be Improved?.- Oxygen Transport and Utilization in Critically Ill Patients.- Oxygen Transport Following Major Trauma.- Limits of Hemodilution in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease.- Pathophysiology of Lactic Acidosis.- Transport and Consumption of Oxygen in Septic Shock.- New Aspects of Sepsis: Relevance to Shock and MOF.- The Molecular Basis of Shock: The Role of Cachectin.- Immunologic Abnormalities Following Hemorrhage and Trauma.- Update in Host Defence Mechanisms.- Selective Elimination of Oropharyngeal and Gastro-Intestinal Flora: A Step Forward in the Control of Infection in ICU?.- Effect of Selective Decontamination on Colonization and Infection Rate in Intensive Care Patients.- Pathogenesis of Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections.- Sepsis in Children: Different Pathophysiology, Different Treatment?.- Acute Respiratory Failure.- Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Changing Concepts of Clinical Evolution and Recovery.- Role of Arachidonic Acid Metabolism in ARDS.- Leukocytes-mediated Pulmonary Injury.- PGE1 Administration in ARDS.- Inhalation Injury.- Respiratory Muscle Insufficiency in Neuromuscular Disorders.- Severe Asthmatic Crisis.- Ventilation-Perfusion Relationships in Acute Asthma.- Clinical Assessment of Severe Asthma.- Can Fatal Asthma Be Prevented?.- Status Asthmaticus: An Approach to Therapy.- Right Ventricular Failure - Pulmonary Hypertension.- The Obscure Right Ventricle - A Historical Review.- The Hemodynamic Effects of Artificial Ventilation.- Respiration Within the Cardiac Cycle.- Right Ventricular Performance During Mechanical Ventilation in ARDS.- Pulmonary Gas Exchange in Pulmonary Vascular Obstruction.- Strategy in Massive Pulmonary Embolism.- Cardiovascular Response to Acute Pulmonary Embolism.- Pathophysiology and Treatment of Pulmonary Hypertension.- Right Ventricular Ejection Fraction in Cardiac Surgery Patients.- Myocardial Ischemia and Necrosis.- Coronary Vasomotor Tone: Implications in Ischemic Heart Disease.- Out of Hospital Management of Acute Myocardial Infarction.- Pre-hospital Thrombolytic Intervention in the Treatment of Acute Myocardial Infarction.- Reperfusion Arrhythmias: An Update.- Positron Emission Tomography for the Assessment of Myocardial Viability in Acute Myocardial Infarction.- Approaches for the Treatment of Residual Coronary Lesions Following Thrombolysis.- Right Ventricular Infarction: Pathogenesis of Low Output.- Management of Cardiac Crisis.- New Inotropic Agents in the ICU.- Treatment of Serious Cardiac Arrhythmias.- Interest of Calcium Channel Blockers During the Perioperative Period.- Hemodynamic and Metabolic Response After Cardiopulmonary Bypass: Continuous Monitoring of CO2 Production.- Heart Transplantation at the Free University of Brussels.- Acute Renal Failure Following Heart and Heart-Lung Transplantations.- Monitoring of the Critically Ill: Invasive and Non-Invasive.- Physiological Meaning of Intravascular Pressure.- Technological Advances in Pressure Monitoring.- Systolic Pressure-Dimension Relationship in the Assessment of Left Ventricular Function.- Quantitative Evaluation of Left Ventricular Function by Doppler Echocardiography.- Strategy for Arterial Catheterization.- New Developments in PaO2 Monitoring.- Conjunctival Oxygen Tension Monitoring.- Indications and Limitations of Sv?O2 and ScvO2 Monitoring.- Dual Oximetry.- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.- Automatic Detection of Cardiac Arrest Rhythms.- Teaching Citizen-CPR: A Belgian Experience.- Pharmacology of Drugs in CPR.- Cerebral Resuscitation After Cardiac Arrest: The Role of Calcium Antagonists.- Emergency and Trauma.- Pre-hospital Trauma Care.- Emergency Medical System in Tokyo.- Urban Bomb Blast: Mechanisms of Injury and Principles of Management.- Difficult Intubation.- Severe Birth Asphyxia.- Clinical Use of Benzodiazepine Antagonists.- Outcome After Trauma.- Factors Influencing Outcome After Severe Head Trauma.- Prognosis of Head Injured Patients.- Posttraumatic Stress Disorders.- Cerebral Crisis - Psychological Support.- Management of Acute Cerebral Edema.- Recent Advances in the Management of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.- Possible Role of Calcium Antagonists in Acute Ischemic Stroke.- The Child's Central Nervous System: Assaults, Monitoring, and Therapy.- Acute Anxiety Disorders.- Parental Psychological Distress : Prevention and Treatment.- Imaging in the Critically Ill.- Interpretation of Pulmonary Vascular Congestion.- The Interpretation of the Portable Chest Film in Intensive Care.- Metabolic Imaging with PET in the Critically Ill Patient with Coronary Artery Disease.- The Contribution of Nuclear Medicine in the Care of the Critically Ill Patient.- Computed Tomography of Head and Abdominal Trauma.- Renal Failure: Prevention and Treatment.- Role of Endothelial Injury in the Pathogenesis of Acute Renal Failure.- Value of Diagnostic Investigations in Acute Renal Failure.- Ventilation and the Kidney.- Dopamine Agonists in Intensive Care Medicine: From Receptors to Clinical Applications.- Anticoagulation for Extracorporeal Systems.- Metabolic and Nutritional Problems.- Management of Hypotonic Hyponatremia.- Acute Diabetic Emergencies.- Nutritional Assessment of Critically Ill Patients.- Special Amino-Acid Formulas in Intensive Care Medicine.- Aspects of the Gastrointestinal Tract in Intensive Care.- Respiratory Support: Old and New Techniques.- Methods of Increasing FRC in Acute Respiratory Failure.- Thoraco-Pulmonary Pressure/Volume Relationship During Mechanical Ventilation.- Mechanical Ventilation in Cardiogenic and Septic Shock.- Intermittent Mandatory Ventilation: Revisited.- Inspiratory Pressure Support.- Airway Pressure Release Ventilation.- Independent Lung Ventilation.- High Frequency Ventilation.- Neonatal Extra-Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO).