Book excerpt: This new edition provides an accessible account of the essentials of intensive care medicine. The core of the book focuses on areas common to all critically ill patients including fluid therapy, sedation, shock, infection and other central topics. This key understanding of basic pathophysiological principles provides an excellent launch pad for the section on individual disease entities encompassing haematology, gastroenterology, nephrology, endocrinology, the respiratory system, cardiovascular pathology, poisoning and neurology. Economic and ethical issues are also covered, and the text is supported by numerous problem-oriented guidelines to help the care provider tackle real-life practical problems as encountered in the ICU. In the same spirit, wherever possible, the authors provide precise and meaningful advice, rather than bland generalisations. This new edition reflects the excitement, challenges and uniqueness of intensive care medicine, for the benefit of all residents, trainees, nursing staff and paramedics attached to the ICU.