[The intensive care department].

Intensive Care Departments are designed for the care of the critically ill, and are equipped with all the material necessary for monitoring and treatment, as well as specially trained medical, nursing, and paramedical staff. With a team of more than 170 highly qualified staff, the Department of Intensive Care at Erasme Hospital, has acquired a national and international reputation in the fields of clinical and experimental research and education, as well as for its standards of clinical practice. Clinical and experimental studies have been high in quantity and quality, and have covered all the key areas in the field of intensive care medicine: severe sepsis, multiple organ failure, transport and metabolism of oxygen, systemic and regional hemodynamic alterations (pulmonary, cerebral, hepato-splanchnic,...), metabolic disorders,... not forgetting issues associated with the complexities of medical ethics. The quality of care, clinical, scientific and personal, offered by the Department of Intensive Care at Erasme Hospital has earned it the high level reputation for which it is renowned in Belgium, and indeed worldwide.