Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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The 15th Annual European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Meeting opened in Barcelona, Spain on September 30, 2002. This report focuses on some highlights of this congress. ⋯ We also present a study that compared continuous with intermittent renal replacement therapies. Finally, the seven posters that received an award are summarized.
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Consensus guidelines on providing optimal end-of-life care in the intensive care unit (ICU) are important tools. However, despite 30 years of ethical discourse and consensus on many of the principles that guide end-of-life care in the ICU, care remains inadequate. Although consensus on the most challenging ethical aspects of some cases will remain elusive, this need not deter clinicians from engaging in practical quality improvement, best practice, and educational interventions to provide compassionate care to all critically ill patients, including those who ultimately die.