title: Critical care--the overview.
abstract: Important keys to successful patient management include: 1. Identify and treat the most life-threatening problems first. 2. Make the patient as stable as possible before undertaking stressful procedures. 3. The critical patient's condition is rapidly changing and requires intensive monitoring and frequent reevaluation. 4. It is important to anticipate complications and initiate monitoring procedures for early detection. 5. The trend of changes in monitored parameters is more significant than a single value. 6. Make sure that the treatment orders are clear and concise and that the technical staff and clinicians have the same interpretations of monitoring values and treatment regimens. 7. Many post-trauma complications do not become evident for 24 to 72 hours. 8. Do not take a patient's stable condition for granted. 9. There is less tolerance for error, indecisiveness, or delay in the critical patient.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Philadelphia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kirby
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003422:Critical Care; D004630:Emergencies / Q000662:veterinary*; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000662:veterinary; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000662:veterinary; D014218:Triage; D014730:Veterinary Medicine