This tutorial looks at the problems of Hypotension and Shock. I define the difference between the concepts – not all hypotensive patients are shocked and not all shocked patients are hypotensive. I then go through a system for exploring the hypotensive or shocked patients’ status to determine the underlying problem – illustrated by a series of clinical scenarios.
Tutorials 2 and 3 in the Introduction the Critical Care Series.
The first is titled “What is Critical Illness” and it covers the concept of Physiologic Reserve.
The third tutorial looks at the problem that many healthcare providers encounter: how do I identify the critically ill patient. In this tutorial I discuss the type of scenarios in which you might be called to the patients bedside. I principally discuss Early Warning Scores (EWS) and why I think they are helpful. I also mention the SOFA score.
ORtoICU 