Developing sectors in the intensive care field - and in critical care medicine in general - require specific levels of competence having a same common denominator: an in-depth knowledge of human pathophysiology. Although this volume presents plenty of topics in constant evolution, as witnessed by the collection of chapters compiled by several researchers, this edition includes, in particular, fields in which decision making at the patients bedside prevails over theoretical argumentation. In other words, the first and foremost message this edition wants to provide is for the reader to focus his/her attention on evidence-based medicine.

Ethics.- Dying in the Intensive Care Unit.- Lung.- Genetics and molecular biology in acute lung injury.- Lung, respiratory mechanics, artificial ventilation.- The pressure-volume curve.- Methods for assessing expiratory flow limitation during tidal breathing.- How to ventilate brain-injured patients in respiratory failure.- Helping surgical patients to give up smoking.- Respiratory issues and ventilatory strategies for morbidly obese patients.- Fluid and Electrolyte Emergency.- Fluid and electrolyte emergency.- Electrolyte emergencies, anion gap, osmolality.- Acute renal failure.- Acute liver failure.- Infections and Sepsis.- Pneumonia in ventilated patients. Severe Gram negative infections; the impact on mortality and its prevention.- Gram-positive ventilator-associated pneumonia: impact on mortality.- Fungal infections in the ICU.- Focus on the diagnosis and treatment of severe meningitis.- Plasma filtration in sepsis: a research protocol.- Highlights on Circulatory Failure, CPR andTrauma.- The cell in shock.- Tissue partial pressure of carbon dioxide tension measurements and microcirculation visualisation. New techniques for the study of low flow states.- Ventricular fibrillation and defibrillation: contemporary understanding of mechanisms.- Arterial waveform analysis to determine cardiovascular parameters.- The Utstein style for the reporting of data from cardiac arrest.- Challenges in trauma care.- Advances in trauma care.- Perioperative Medicine.- Standards of care in operating theatres.- Audit.- Focus on entropy and surgical stress index.- Neuraxial anaesthesia and anticoagulation.- Regional anaesthesia in the patient with pre-existing neurological dysfunction.- Infectious complications of regional anaesthesia.- The Mayo Clinic total joint analgesic pathway.- Acute therapy in patients with wide-QRS complex tachyarrhythmias.- Obstetrics and Paediatrics.- Obstetrics at high risk.- Resuscitation of the newborn.- Regional anaesthesia in neonates.- Locoregional anaesthesia in children.- Management of CRRT in paediatrics.- Severity scores in paediatric intensive care units.- Analgesia and sedation during mechanical ventilation in paediatrics.- Computing.- Latency reduction in clinical and translational research.- Critical Care Bleeding.- New frontiers in critical bleeding.- Evaluation of performance of ICUs.