Critical Care Endocrinology

Endocrine aspects of critical care have been a major focus of both clinical and basic science research in the past several years. It is becoming increasingly evident that the neuroendocrine response is both a mediator and a modulator of a variety of conditions afflicting the critically ill patient, such as sepsis, trauma, and surgery. Critical care endocrinology encompasses a multitude of disease processes that cannot be comprehensively reviewed in this brief chapter. Given space limitations, only the following clinical syndromes will be discussed: acute adrenal insufficiency, relative adrenal insufficiency (also known as critical illness–related corticosteroid insufficiency), thyroid storm, and myxedema coma.