Critical care in South America. The new tradition.

This article offers a brief discussion of some of the aspects of clinical and academic realities of critical and intensive care medicine in South America. Organizational efforts of collaborating physician and nursing intensivists from South American countries, Spain, and Portugal are outlined. Discussion includes the issues of funding and support of health care delivery of the critically ill, and some of the clinical syndromes not commonly seen in North America and Europe, but seen by intensivists in South America.