Professor Warwick Butt

contact details

Professor Warwick Butt
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit
Royal Children's Hospital
Flemington Road
Parkville
Victoria 3052

T + 61 3 9345 5224
E warwick.butt@rch.org.au

biography

Dr Butt graduated medicine from University of Melbourne in 1976, trained in Paediatrics in Melbourne and achieved full fellowship in 1982.  Critical care training in Melbourne and Toronto, Canada and returned to become a consultant in ICU at Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne in 1986. 

Dr Butt developed extracorporeal technology in children with the start of haemofiltration and plasma filtration in 1987, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in 1988.  He became a consultant at ICU, Alfred Hospital in 1999 and was appointed to Director of the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Children's Hospital in early 2011.

His research interests include extracorporeal life support, sepsis, neurotrauma and outcome of critical care.  He has published/presented over 300 scientific communications, invited speaker to state, national, international and world critical care and anaesthesia conferences.  He is on the editorial board of 3 journals and reviewer for 9 major critical care and paediatric medicine journals.

research focus & interest

Paediatric Intensive Care research involves a multidisciplinary team of medical and nursing staff, as well as allied health professionals and medical students from The University of Melbourne. Our research portfolio includes local studies at RCH, and collaborative studies involving other paediatric and adult intensive care units in Australia and overseas.

Our research studies include collaborations with a number of sub-specialties, including cardiology, cardiac surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, neuropsychology, radiology, and neonatology.

Current research themes include:

• Acute lung injury
• Traumatic brain injury
• Brain injury related to congenital heart disease
• Renal replacement therapy
• Extracorporeal life support

Paediatric Intensive Care research is currently funded through a number of resources including benevolent donations, the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, the Victorian Neurotrauma Initiative, and the National Heart Foundation of Australia.

publications

Has extracorporeal membrane oxygenation finally arrived for resuscitation and stabilization of critically ill patients?. Butt W. Critical Care Medicine. 39(5):1218-9, 2011.

Pediatric septic shock guidelines and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation management. MacLaren G. Butt W. Best D. Critical Care Medicine. 37(6):2143-4; 2009

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for 2009 influenza 1 (H1N1) acute respiratory distress syndrome.  Australia and New Zealand Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ANZ ECMO) Influenza Investigators. JAMA. 302(17):1888-95, 2009 Nov 4.