Preface

The first edition of our textbook Devices in Cardiac Critical Care was devised as a practical and unique means to assist physicians-in-training including internal medicine residents, cardiology fellows, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and medical students who rotate on a busy tertiary cardiac critical care unit. We constructed the text to be as user-friendly as possible by utilizing a personal conversation style of writing.

This textbook is essentially a user’s manual to assist the medical practitioner in making adequate clinical judgment. The book is divided into chapters based on genuine clinical cases with a proposed approach for each case.

To help orient and to prevent excessive details to the reader, we included several key points in each case complementing and highlighting the major points throughout the clinical content with the intention of allowing an easier and faster review.

It is our goal that this book serves as an effective teaching tool regarding the appropriateness and utilization of cardiac devices in the cardiac critical care unit.

We hope that you enjoy this book and find it useful.