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Downloaded from http://inpractice.bmj.com/ on August 11, 2017 - Published by group.bmj.com FOREWORD Intensive care in companion animals THE first intensive care units (ICUs) in human hospitals were founded in the 1960s and 1970s and although human medicine has undergone marked development since that time, the aim of the ICU today is as it was then: to provide treatment for patients with life-threatening illnesses who require constant monitoring and often support from specialist equipment. ICUs have a high level of staffing, and these staff are specially trained to deal with severely ill patients. Veterinary ICU care has followed this human medical model and has developed hugely over the past 30 years, with the foundation of the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society in 1984 (with a European arm in 2002) and the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in 1989 being important steps. The foundation of the European College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in 2014 shows that veterinary critical care is still progressing today. The articles in this In Practice Focus help explain how veterinary ICU care can be provided. Identification of animals requiring ICU care are described in the ‘Triage of the veterinary patient’ and ‘Monitoring small animal patients in the intensive care unit’ articles. The ‘Planning, managing and equipping an intensive care unit within a veterinary facility’ article describes the ideal ICU and what is practical to achieve in practice. Monitoring, effective nursing and nutrition are vital aspects of management of the ICU patient and are covered in the ‘Monitoring small animal patients in the intensive care unit’, ‘Nursing critically ill patients in the intensive care unit’ and ‘Nutritional support in the intensive care unit’ articles, respectively. This In Practice Focus aims to demonstrate what is possible in the veterinary world today for some of our sickest, yet often most rewarding, patients. We hope it is both inspiring and useful. Karen Humm, Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hertfordshire AL9 7TA, UK e-mail: [email protected] Foreword 1 Intensive care in companion animals Karen Humm Managing a unit 2 Planning, managing and equipping an intensive care unit within a veterinary facility Caroline Smith, Holly Witchell Triage 6 Triage of the veterinary patient Daniel Lewis, Emma Donnelly Patient monitoring 12 Monitoring small animal patients in the intensive care unit Karen Humm, Lindsay Kellett-Gregory Nutrition 18 Nutritional support in the intensive care unit Aarti Kathrani Nursing 25 Nursing critically ill patients in the intensive care unit Elle Haskey doi: 10.1136/inp.i5631 This supplement is sponsored by Royal Canin. In Practice commissioned the articles, which were peer-reviewed and assessed for relevance. It also provided copy editing, production and distribution services. ©British Veterinary Association 2016. All rights reserved. In Practice FOCUS November 2016 1 Foreword.indd 1 1 27/10/2016 15:57 Downloaded from http://inpractice.bmj.com/ on August 11, 2017 - Published by group.bmj.com Intensive care in companion animals Karen Humm In Practice 2016 38: 1 doi: 10.1136/inp.i5631 Updated information and services can be found at: http://inpractice.bmj.com/content/38/Suppl_4/1 These include: Email alerting service Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up in the box at the top right corner of the online article. Notes To request permissions go to: http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions To order reprints go to: http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintform To subscribe to BMJ go to: http://group.bmj.com/subscribe/