Infection Control in the Intensive Care Unit

This is an examination of the infection of the patient in the intensive care unit. It considers issues such as: severity of underlying disease; decrease of host's immune system; type of lesion; aggressiveness of interventions and invasive monitoring techniques; and the use of toxic antibiotics.

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This second edition of Infection control in the intensive care unit has been completely rewritten. All statements are justified, where possible, by randomised controlled trials or meta-analyses, avoiding unsubstantiated expert opinion. The book contains a new section dedicated to the microbiology for the critically ill, in particular, how to process and interpret surveillance cultures to distinguish the normal from the abnormal carrier state. The usefulness of molecular techniques for outbreak analysis is discussed in a new chapter. An extensive chapter dedicated to clinical virology in neonatal, paediatric and adult intensive care units is also new, as well as the explanation of the six basic principles of the therapy of an infection. Attention is given to special topics such as nutrition, gut mucosal protection and the control of antimicrobial resistance. The addition of enteral to parenteral antimicrobials contributes to the control of multi-resistant micro-organisms.