Clinical awareness of intra-abdominal hypertension and abdominal compartment syndrome in 2007.

INTRODUCTION

There has been an exponentially increasing interest in intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH). The aim of this review is to evaluate the evolution in clinical awareness of this syndrome.

METHODS

A PubMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine) search and a ScienceDirect (Elsevier B.V.) search of recent literature were performed in order to assess clinical awareness of IAH and abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS).

RESULTS

In total, 489 articles and 8 clinical surveys have been identified. The results of the landmark papers and the surveys will be briefly discussed in this review.

CONCLUSION

Clinical awareness of ACS is steadily increasing. It is time to pay attention to ACS, but further, it is time to move forward with therapeutic bundles in a multi-centered, outcome trial on IAH/ACS therapy in order to elevate IAH/ACS management to an international standard of care.