[Results of studies in critical care medicine in the year 2009 : update]

Critical care medicine plays an important role for the medical and economic success of hospitals. Knowledge and implementation of recent relevant studies are prerequisites for high quality intensive care medicine. The aim of the present manuscript is to present an overview of the most important publications in intensive care medicine in 2009 and comment on their clinical relevance. It has to be recognized that the cited studies are chosen according to the view of the authors. In 2009 many large randomized studies with high patient numbers were published. Main topics in 2009 were the therapy of lung failure, analgosedation and sepsis therapy. New trends are bedside echocardiography and telemedicine. Unfortunately, a magic bullet has not been identified last year. The focus is still on team education and guideline-assisted therapy.