| Intensive Care Unit |
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An Intensive Care Unit ('''ICU''') or '''Critical Care Unit''' ('''CCU''') is a specialised facility in a Hospital that provides Intensive Care Medicine . Many hospitals also have designated intensive care areas for certain specialities of medicine, as dictated by the needs and available resources of each hospital. The naming is not rigidly standardized. HISTORY In response to a polio epidemic (where many patients required constant ventilation and survelliance), Bjorn Ibsen established the first intensive care unit in Copenhagen in 1953.1 The first application of this idea in the US was pioneered by Dr. William Mosenthal , a surgeon at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center .2 In the 1960s, the importance of cardiac arrhythmias as a source of morbidity and mortality in Myocardial Infarctions was recognized. This led to the routine use of cardiac monitoring in ICUs, especially in the post-MI setting. DIFFERENT FORMS OF ICUS Specialized types of ICUs include:
EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEMS Common equipment in an ICU includes Mechanical Ventilator to assist breathing through an Endotracheal Tube or a Tracheotomy opening; Dialysis equipment for renal problems; equipment for the constant Monitoring of bodily functions; a web of intravenous lines, feeding tubes, nasogastric tubes, suction pumps, drains and catheters; and a wide array of Drugs to treat the main condition(s), induce sedation, reduce pain, and prevent secondary infections. QUALITY OF CARE |
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