CLINICAL OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY Volume 57, Number 4, 790 r 2014, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Critical Care Obstetrics LUIS D. PACHECO, MD Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Anesthesiology, Divisions of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Surgical Critical Care, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Galveston, Texas
Foreword
Coexistence of pregnancy with serious medical conditions is on the rise, largely secondary to the obesity epidemic and the fact that women are delaying childbearing until the third and fourth decades. More complex medical diseases are expected to coexist with pregnancy owing to advances in fields such as transplant medicine and congenital heart surgery, resulting in women with diverse organ transplants and repaired complex congenital heart anomalies achieving pregnancy. The present issue of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology is part of an initiative to expand knowledge in critical care to maternal fetal medicine specialists. The topics selected (obstetrical hemorrhage, hypertensive emergencies, acute kidney injury, use of sedatives-analgesics-paralytics, severe sepsis, myocardial infarction, pulmonary hypertension, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation during pregnancy) represent a broad array of areas that include some of the most important and relevant issues in modern critical care. We have invited experts in each field to provide an updated clinically useful chapter for practitioners. We believe it is time that maternal-fetal medicine specialists start caring for sick mothers by becoming the leaders within multidisciplinary teams commonly required to manage these subset of pregnant women.
Correspondence: Luis D. Pacheco, MD, Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Anesthesiology, Divisions of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Surgical Critical Care, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX. E-mail: [email protected] The author declares that there is nothing to disclose. CLINICAL OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY
790 | www.clinicalobgyn.com
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VOLUME 57
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NUMBER 4
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DECEMBER 2014
Critical Care Obstetrics LUIS D. PACHECO, MD Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Anesthesiology, Divisions of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Surgical Critical Care, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Galveston, Texas
Foreword
Coexistence of pregnancy with serious medical conditions is on the rise, largely secondary to the obesity epidemic and the fact that women are delaying childbearing until the third and fourth decades. More complex medical diseases are expected to coexist with pregnancy owing to advances in fields such as transplant medicine and congenital heart surgery, resulting in women with diverse organ transplants and repaired complex congenital heart anomalies achieving pregnancy. The present issue of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology is part of an initiative to expand knowledge in critical care to maternal fetal medicine specialists. The topics selected (obstetrical hemorrhage, hypertensive emergencies, acute kidney injury, use of sedatives-analgesics-paralytics, severe sepsis, myocardial infarction, pulmonary hypertension, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation during pregnancy) represent a broad array of areas that include some of the most important and relevant issues in modern critical care. We have invited experts in each field to provide an updated clinically useful chapter for practitioners. We believe it is time that maternal-fetal medicine specialists start caring for sick mothers by becoming the leaders within multidisciplinary teams commonly required to manage these subset of pregnant women.
Correspondence: Luis D. Pacheco, MD, Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Anesthesiology, Divisions of Maternal Fetal Medicine and Surgical Critical Care, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX. E-mail: [email protected] The author declares that there is nothing to disclose. CLINICAL OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY
790 | www.clinicalobgyn.com
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VOLUME 57
/
NUMBER 4
/
DECEMBER 2014
