ABS Surgical Critical Care case studies
ABS Surgical Critical Care · Put your knowledge to work in context.
Surgical Critical Care certification is an ABS specialty credential for surgeons who care for patients of all ages with acute, life-threatening, or potentially life-threatening surgical conditions. The ABS describes the specialty as combining nonoperative supportive care techniques for critically ill patients with a broad understanding of how critical surgical illness relates to surgical procedures, plus specialized expertise in physiologic responses to trauma, burns, and inflammation and in comorbidities and complications unique to surgical patients. The ABS Surgical Critical Care case studies are 5 cases and about 4,559 words.
1Oxygen Delivery in a Postoperative Patient With Septic Shock and Anemia
A 71-year-old man is 18 hours out of an emergency laparotomy for perforated sigmoid diverticulitis. He is intubated and sedated on volume-control ventilation (tidal volume 6 mL/kg predicted body weight, PEEP 10 cmH2O, FiO2 0.60).
1,018 words, about 5 min2Burn Resuscitation: Judging Adequacy When the Numbers Disagree
A 34-year-old woman is admitted 3 hours after a house fire with deep partial- and full-thickness burns over the anterior trunk, both arms, and the face - estimated at 45% total body surface area by the Lund-Browder chart. She was intubated in the field for stridor and soot in the oropharynx.
892 words, about 4 min3Delirium and Withdrawal in a Ventilated Patient With Alcohol Use Disorder
A 58-year-old man is day 4 in the ICU after an open reduction and internal fixation of a femur fracture sustained in a fall. He has a history of heavy alcohol use (approximately 12 drinks per day, last drink the day of admission) and smokes.
915 words, about 5 min4Deciding About Emergency Surgery in a Patient With Decompensated Cirrhosis
A 62-year-old man with alcohol-related cirrhosis (Child-Pugh class C, MELD-Na 24) presents with 2 days of abdominal pain and fever. He has tense ascites, jaundice, and asterixis.
804 words, about 4 min5ICU Leadership: Capacity, Triage, and a Conflict Over a Bed
You are the attending physician covering a 16-bed closed surgical ICU. At 21:00 there are 15 patients, but one bed is unusable because of a broken ventilator circuit that cannot be replaced until morning.
930 words, about 5 min