European Society of Intensive Care Medicine 14th Annual Congress, 30 September-3 October 2001, Geneva, Switzerland

The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Annual Congress offers the opportunity for basic scientists and clinicians to share recent findings. Apart from the large number of free communications, several sessions of the congress were dedicated to state-of-the-art tutorials given by established speakers. The areas of interest of the attendees were widely distributed as usual, a reflection of the large array of so-called 'critical illnesses'. The results of clinical trials and experimental findings using recently developed drugs were presented, essentially in the fields of inflammation, sepsis, and acute lung injury. The benefits of several new compounds observed experimentally need to be confirmed clinically. The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Congress is well established as a unique opportunity to implement and to promote a collaboration between European basic scientists and clinicians.