Critical care medicine: landmarks and legends.

Critical care medicine was born from the selective pressures of human disease, and with the perseverance and foresight of a select few pioneers, has become an independent field of medicine. This introduction travels back in time to evaluate those visionaries and their landmark contributions. Advancements in caring for the critically ill and organ failure occurred during the wars of the twentieth century. Landmark advances in the management of respiratory paralysis occurred in the polio epidemic of the 1940s. It was during this era that the world's first ICU was developed. Contemporary critical care differs considerably from that which marked its birth. Much of the technology we currently employ is assumed: invasive hemodynamic monitoring, mechanical ventilation, antisepsis, and antibiotics.