| 1 | APACHE II | Critical Care Medicine | 1985 | 16,429 |
| 2 | Epidemiology of severe sepsis in the United States: Analysis of incidence, outcome, and associated costs of care | Critical Care Medicine | 2001 | 8,843 |
| 3 | Duration of hypotension before initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy is the critical determinant of survival in human septic shock* | Critical Care Medicine | 2006 | 7,674 |
| 4 | Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International guidelines for management of severe sepsis and septic shock: 2008 | Critical Care Medicine | 2008 | 7,411 |
| 5 | Surviving Sepsis Campaign | Critical Care Medicine | 2013 | 6,617 |
| 6 | 2001 SCCM/ESICM/ACCP/ATS/SIS International Sepsis Definitions Conference | Critical Care Medicine | 2003 | 5,527 |
| 7 | Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines for management of severe sepsis and septic shock | Critical Care Medicine | 2004 | 4,670 |
| 8 | Use of the SOFA score to assess the incidence of organ dysfunction/failure in intensive care units | Critical Care Medicine | 1998 | 3,987 |
| 9 | Multiple Organ Dysfunction Score | Critical Care Medicine | 1995 | 3,481 |
| 10 | Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Pain, Agitation, and Delirium in Adult Patients in the Intensive Care Unit | Critical Care Medicine | 2013 | 3,357 |
| 11 | APACHE II-A Severity of Disease Classification System | Critical Care Medicine | 1986 | 3,202 |
| 12 | Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Management of Pain, Agitation/Sedation, Delirium, Immobility, and Sleep Disruption in Adult Patients in the ICU | Critical Care Medicine | 2018 | 2,987 |
| 13 | Evaluation of delirium in critically ill patients: Validation of the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) | Critical Care Medicine | 2001 | 2,796 |
| 14 | Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock: 2016 | Critical Care Medicine | 2017 | 2,575 |
| 15 | Sepsis in European intensive care units: Results of the SOAP study* | Critical Care Medicine | 2006 | 2,563 |
| 16 | APACHE—acute physiology and chronic health evaluation: a physiologically based classification system | Critical Care Medicine | 1981 | 2,455 |
| 17 | Improving long-term outcomes after discharge from intensive care unit | Critical Care Medicine | 2012 | 2,285 |
| 18 | Effect of acute renal failure requiring renal replacement therapy on outcome in critically ill patients* | Critical Care Medicine | 2002 | 2,098 |
| 19 | Assessment of cardiac output from systemic arterial pressure in humans | Critical Care Medicine | 2002 | 2,068 |
| 20 | Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2021 | Critical Care Medicine | 2021 | 2,021 |
| 21 | Clinical practice guidelines for the sustained use of sedatives and analgesics in the critically ill adult | Critical Care Medicine | 2002 | 2,004 |
| 22 | Outcome benefit of intensive insulin therapy in the critically ill: Insulin dose versus glycemic control* | Critical Care Medicine | 2003 | 1,988 |
| 23 | Efficacy of red blood cell transfusion in the critically ill: A systematic review of the literature* | Critical Care Medicine | 2008 | 1,937 |
| 24 | Incidence and prognosis of intraabdominal hypertension in a mixed population of critically ill patients: A multiple-center epidemiological study* | Critical Care Medicine | 2005 | 1,912 |
| 25 | The CRIT Study: Anemia and blood transfusion in the critically ill—Current clinical practice in the United States* | Critical Care Medicine | 2004 | 1,880 |
| 26 | Use of intensive care at the end of life in the United States: An epidemiologic study* | Critical Care Medicine | 2004 | 1,771 |
| 27 | Dynamic changes in arterial waveform derived variables and fluid responsiveness in mechanically ventilated patients: A systematic review of the literature* | Critical Care Medicine | 2009 | 1,763 |
| 28 | Glycemic variability: A strong independent predictor of mortality in critically ill patients* | Critical Care Medicine | 2008 | 1,744 |
| 29 | Early lactate clearance is associated with improved outcome in severe sepsis and septic shock* | Critical Care Medicine | 2004 | 1,688 |
| 30 | PRISM III | Critical Care Medicine | 1996 | 1,670 |
| 31 | Clinical practice guideline: Red blood cell transfusion in adult trauma and critical care* | Critical Care Medicine | 2009 | 1,613 |
| 32 | Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) IV: Hospital mortality assessment for today’s critically ill patients* | Critical Care Medicine | 2006 | 1,611 |
| 33 | Delirium as a predictor of long-term cognitive impairment in survivors of critical illness | Critical Care Medicine | 2010 | 1,604 |
| 34 | The effect of age on the development and outcome of adult sepsis* | Critical Care Medicine | 2006 | 1,545 |
| 35 | Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II: A public-access intensive care unit database* | Critical Care Medicine | 2011 | 1,529 |
| 36 | Nosocomial infections in medical intensive care units in the United States | Critical Care Medicine | 1999 | 1,489 |
| 37 | Recommendations for the diagnosis and management of corticosteroid insufficiency in critically ill adult patients: Consensus statements from an international task force by the American College of Critical Care Medicine | Critical Care Medicine | 2008 | 1,459 |
| 38 | Simplified Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System | Critical Care Medicine | 1996 | 1,455 |
| 39 | The Critical Care Safety Study: The incidence and nature of adverse events and serious medical errors in intensive care* | Critical Care Medicine | 2005 | 1,422 |
| 40 | The LRINEC (Laboratory Risk Indicator for Necrotizing Fasciitis) score: A tool for distinguishing necrotizing fasciitis from other soft tissue infections* | Critical Care Medicine | 2004 | 1,374 |
| 41 | Fluid resuscitation in septic shock: A positive fluid balance and elevated central venous pressure are associated with increased mortality* | Critical Care Medicine | 2011 | 1,355 |
| 42 | Empiric Antibiotic Treatment Reduces Mortality in Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock From the First Hour | Critical Care Medicine | 2014 | 1,346 |
| 43 | Refinement, scoring, and validation of the Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit (FS-ICU) survey* | Critical Care Medicine | 2007 | 1,325 |
| 44 | Effect of enteral feeding with eicosapentaenoic acid, gamma-linolenic acid, and antioxidants in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome | Critical Care Medicine | 1999 | 1,325 |
| 45 | Findings of the First Consensus Conference on Medical Emergency Teams* | Critical Care Medicine | 2006 | 1,323 |
| 46 | A prospective, randomized, study comparing early percutaneous dilational tracheotomy to prolonged translaryngeal intubation (delayed tracheotomy) in critically ill medical patients* | Critical Care Medicine | 2004 | 1,321 |
| 47 | Clinical practice guidelines for support of the family in the patient-centered intensive care unit: American College of Critical Care Medicine Task Force 2004–2005 | Critical Care Medicine | 2007 | 1,301 |
| 48 | Memory, delusions, and the development of acute posttraumatic stress disorder-related symptoms after intensive care | Critical Care Medicine | 2001 | 1,293 |
| 49 | Passive leg raising predicts fluid responsiveness in the critically ill* | Critical Care Medicine | 2006 | 1,290 |
| 50 | Apoptotic cell death in patients with sepsis, shock, and multiple organ dysfunction | Critical Care Medicine | 1999 | 1,282 |