Eva Sundman

Senior Consultant and Head of Intensive Care and Cardiothoracic Perioperative Medicine at the Karolinska University Hospital.

Associate Professor and founder of the Intensive Care Rehabilitation Team at the Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet.

With the advancements in intensive care medicine, more patients survive the acute phase of critical illness, and as a result, the number of patients who require prolonged intensive care treatment is growing. Importantly, many survivors face short- and long-term medical challenges that require specialized diagnostic and treatment tools. Intensive care rehabilitation (ICR), an emerging subspecialty of intensive care, is dedicated to improving these patients’ physical and cognitive recovery. The return of unassisted breathing is a central component of ICR that requires the resolution of inflammation, regaining respiratory muscle strength, precise neuromuscular coordination, recovery of sensory-motor reflexes and the ability to keep an open and protected airway. We study aspects of prolonged critical illness and recovery to develop improved diagnostic and treatment tools.