The book is aimed at junior medical staff who rotate through intensive care units (ICUs) and other physicians who are involved in managing patients in an ICU, but not necessarily as their primary specialty. It may also prove useful to any member of the paramedical or nursing profession who is involved in acute medicine. The book initially arose from the need to give resident medical staff rotating through our own ICU a crash course in intensive care medicine. At present this subject is not universally taught to undergraduates and too often, exposure as a postgraduate turns out to be learning by experience.

Intensive care medicine is an exciting and rapidly developing specialty. There are two major problems with writing a book about it at this point of time. Firstly, it may be out of date before it is published and secondly, it may not capture the flavour of intensive care medicine. Just as a committee of specialists representing each organ may not necessarily be the best way to approach the multiorgan problems of the critically ill, then a book which only summarises the conventional wisdom of other specialties may not be the best book on intensive care medicine. It is a new specialty, drawing on the knowledge of other specialties, but also having expertise unique to itself. The specialty has its own journals and meetings as well as nursing and medical specialists. We have tried to make this book reflect the uniqueness of intensive care medicine.