INTRAABDOMINAL HYPERTENSION AND ABDOMINAL COMPARTMENT SYNDROME: WE HAVE PAID ATTENTION, NOW IT IS TIME TO UNDERSTAND!

Intraabdominal hypertension (IAH) and abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) are relatively newly discovered problems in critically ill patients (1, 2), but in fact, they have been around since the early days of critical care medicine and even before. Many of us may well remember treating patients with tense, distended abdomens, after emergency abdominal surgery, or in patients suffering from diseases such as acute pancrea-titis. Many patients who eviscerated in the intensive care unit (ICU) were sent back to the operating room for fascial closure, whereas these cases of spontaneous decompression should be seen as a natural defence mechanism and a sign that the physiology of the patient was compromised. All too often, the fi nal common pathway was therapy resistant multiple organ dysfunc-

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