These slides help the medical student understand the types of PICS, what makes up PICS, the “burden of survivorship” and some novel interventions for the treatment of PICS.

Despite reduced mortality and increasing survival rate of ICU treatment, a large group of patients surviving the ICU have a variety of complaints. Survivors of critical illness can undergo dramatic changes in their lives as a result of their experience, with many having some form of deficit in one or more domains of physical, psychological or cognitive functioning. There is still much to learn about the magnitude of the so-called Post ICU Syndrome (PICS) in patients surviving in the ICU.

This booklet contains advice and information about intensive care. It tells you how critical illness may be treated and what recovery may be like. Not every patient will experience all of these things, but they are more likely to if they have been in intensive care for more than a few days. Most of this booklet is written for patients but there is a section specifically for relatives and visitors. By reading this booklet, relatives will learn what a patientʼs recovery may involve and it will give them the answers to some of the questions they may have.