The Changi General Hospital is a new regional hospital in the eastern part of Singapore catering to a population of about 750 000. Planning...

Critical care medicine as a specialty has grown rapidly, both clinically and academically, over the past 25 years. In the USA, certification of competence...

Hyperkalaemia is a common biochemical derangement in the intensive care unit reflecting a diversity of systemic perturbations such as acute renal failure, rhabdomyolysis, extracellular...

The role of ventilatory support in acute lung injury is supportive, whilst the damage to alveolar-capillary membranes resolves and alveolar stability is restored. The...

The origins of withholding medical support are found in ancient times. More than two millennia ago, Hippocrates (460 to 361 BC) stated that the...

The last decade has seen a progressive change in the style of management of severe acute renal failure (acute renal failure which requires the...

The intensive care unit (ICU) is a complex environment in which multidisciplinary expertise has been shown to enhance clinical outcomes. For example, the availability...

In 1980, Furchgott and Zawadzki demonstrated that the relaxation of isolated arteries to acetylcholine required the presence of endothelial cells. This response was mediated...

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) was first described by Ashbaugh et al in 1967. The original authors detailed the presence of tachypnoea, hypoxaemia, decreased...

Multisystem organ failure occurs in a large proportion of critically ill patients and is a major cause of death in this group of patients....

Central to the combined diagnostic and therapeutic approach to the critically ill subject is the evaluation of both the basal physiologic status and its...

The Western Pacific region includes a very diverse group of countries varying in their culture, economic development and per capita income, disease prevalence and...

Although special areas for postoperative patients existed 50 years ago, the modern specialty of Critical Care began during the polio epidemic of the 1950s....

The use of caudal preservative-free morphine for postoperative analgesia in children has gained popularity since it was first described by Jensen. Several studies have...

Persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) is an important cause of neonatal mortality amongst infants who are of term or post-term gestation. The most severely ill...

Adenosine has been shown to be effective in terminating supraventricular tachycardia in adults and children. However, the use of adenosine has not been previously...

Peripheral access by venous cut down, once popular in the 1950s and 1960s, has almost become obsolete with the introduction of the Seldinger technique...

Malaria is an important and common infectious parasitic disease globally. It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, especially in endemic areas. This article is...

The study of poisoning has been relatively neglected in Singapore. A check through the Infogate database of the National University of Singapore Library revealed...

Drowning victims suffocate from submersion. This may lead to immediate death or, if they survive, brain damage if significant cerebral hypoxia is present. This article...

Diabetes insipidus (DI) is a syndrome characterised by the excretion of abnormally large volumes of dilute urine. It occurs uncommonly in neurosurgical patients, but...

Trauma is the fifth commonest cause of death in Singapore. In 1996, trauma contributed to 5.4% of mortality. This article is available only as a...

Injuries form the fifth commonest cause of death locally. They accounted for 27 out of 100 000 deaths in 1993. This article is available only...

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is widely practised for cardiopulmonary arrests with variable success. The initial intention was to defibrillate patients with ventricular fibrillation after acute...

The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) and the new Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS II) scoring systems are widely used...

The Singapore General Hospital is a 1700-bedded tertiary hospital with subspecialty intensive care units (ICUs), i.e. Surgical ICU, Cardiothoracic ICU, Neurosurgical ICU, Medical ICU,...

Critical care is costly as it is labour intensive and involves expensive life support technology. In the United States, the intensive care units (ICUs)...

Does Critical Care Medicine exist and what defines its area of practice? Different countries have embarked on their own journeys of discovery, and have...

Sepsis is a common and life-threatening medical condition which has high incidence and mortality rates. Health care professionals are increasingly familiar with this syndrome,...