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During the past decade there has been a considerable expansion in the understanding, assessment and treatment of critically ill patients. An attempt to portray our present knowledge of this diverse field in a comprehensive textbook is therefore a formidable and daunting undertaking. However, many colleagues in different disciplines and from different countries convinced us of the need for such a work and, greatly encouraged by their interest, we embarked upon the project. Any single text, even a very long one, cannot cover every aspect of critical illness. Our first task was, therefore, to define those areas of the subject that had to be included. This we did on a systematic basis, and although the final emphasis of the book is very largely directed to clinical matters, we felt it pertinent to include in some detail accounts of relevant physiology and technology. Care of the Critically Ill Patient is divided into twelve sections, each concerned with major facets of critical illness; each of the sixty-eight chapters includes a topical and often extensive bibliography. The many chosen contributors form an international group of specialists whose combined expertise embraces the topics that we have selected.