This book, part of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine textbook series, provides detailed up-to-date information on the physical, cognitive, and psychological impairments that are frequently present following a stay in an intensive care unit and examines in depth the available preventive and therapeutic strategies, including adapted rehabilitation programs. Beyond acquainting readers with the multiple facets of post-intensive care syndrome (PICS), the book aims to promote the effective follow-up of patients, thereby enhancing their ability to work and their functional autonomy, and to identify risk factors for the development of PICS as a stimulus to beneficial organizational changes in intensive care departments.

The background to the book is the realization by healthcare providers that the quality of life of patients who have required a stay in an intensive care unit can be severely impaired or even become unacceptable. All too often, the diverse sequelae are overlooked by specialists of other disciplines. Moreover, families and caregivers are also at high risk of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine has developed the Lessons from the ICU series with the vision of providing focused and state-of-the-art overviews of central topics in Intensive Care and optimal resources for clinicians working in Intensive Care. This book, written by renowned experts in the field, will facilitate the transmission of key knowledge with significant clinical and financial benefits.

Margaret Herridge is Professor of Medicine, Critical Care & Pulmonary Medicine at the University Health Network, Toronto, Canada; Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute; Director of Research in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto, and Director of RECOVER, a clinical & research programme for patient and family-centred follow-up care after critical illness. Prof. Herridge was awarded Honorary Membership of ESICM in 2016 for her contribution to the international field of intensive care medicine.

Élie Azoulay is Professor of Medicine, Specialty Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Director of the Medical-ICU of the Saint-Louis Teaching Hospital, Paris, France. Furthermore, he is: Director of the research group on the management of acute respiratory failure and outcomes in critically ill immunocompromised patients (GRR-OH, created in 2005, 33 centers). Nine-I investigators (68 ICUs in 16 countries in the US and Canada); Director of the French FAMIREA study group (1996, 100 centers throughout France) a multicenter collaborative multidisciplinary group aimed at improving effectiveness of communication with family members of ICU-patients. This group is funded by the Ministry of Health and the French Society for Critical Care (SRLF); Director of the French program for the care of critically ill immunocompromised patients. Constitutive site of the national reference center on thrombotic microangiopathies, as well as member of the executive committee of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine. Prof. Azoulay was the Past Chairman of the ethics section of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and Past Editor in chief of Intensive Care Medicine (2012-2018; impact factor 19), as well.

His main fields of interest and teaching experience are devoted to: Pulmonary medicine, Acute Respiratory Failure in immunocompromized patients, Hematological Malignancies in the ICU, Noninvasive mechanical ventilation in hematological patients, Severe infections in the critically ill, Invasive fungal infections, Organ dysfunction in patients with connective tissue diseases, systemic vasculitis, thrombotic microangiopathies, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, tumor lysis syndrome, and other hematological emergencies. Critical Care and Ethics (medical school, graduate and post graduate). Prof. Azoulay is author of more than 500 publications.