Abdominal compartment syndrome: it's time to pay attention!

Excerpt

Sir: We read with interest the paper by Tiwari et al. [1] on the recognition and management of abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) in the United Kingdom. Unlike many commonly encountered disease processes which remain within the purview of a given discipline, intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) and ACS readily cross the usual barriers and may occur in any patient population regardless of age, illness, or injury [2]. As a result, no one scientific society or association can represent the wide variety of physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and other allied healthcare personnel who might encounter patients with IAH and/or ACS in their daily practice. To fill this void, the World Society on Abdominal Compartment Syndrome (WSACS, www.wsacs.org) has been founded to serve as a peer-reviewed forum and educational resource for all healthcare providers as well as those in industry who have an interest in IAH and ACS. The mission of the WSACS is to foster education, promote research, and thereby improve the survival of patients with IAH and ACS by bringing together physicians, nurses, and others from throughout the world and from a variety of clinical disciplines. …