Description of the Cases

Abstract

To examine the problem of futility in intensive care, the editors asked a multinational sampling of critical care physicians to describe how they would treat their critically ill patients. We formulated three patient cases based on actual patients, with any distinguishing characteristics obscured to maintain confidentiality. We queried, through electronic mail, a number of the critical care physicians subscribed to the multinational critical care electronic list CCM-L (http://ccm-l.med.edu). Before the Internet, contacting physicians around the world would have been a lengthy and laborious process. In this instance, it was accomplished in a week.