An approach to critically ill patients.

In this article, we address the initial aspects of the management of critically ill patients—namely, resuscitation, stabilization, monitoring, and disposition. Because dysrhythmias, airway management, shock, and mechanical ventilation are covered in detail as future topics in this series and because the background of our expected readers may vary substantially, we provide a general framework to or from which readers may add or subtract their own experiences. For this discussion, we assume that a clinician is called to a “code” situation. Resuscitation issues have been addressed, and the patient desires all life-sustaining treatments.