Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

A precise unit in the hospital that is assembled to treat and cure critical cases is called an INTENSIVE CARE UNIT. In other medical terms it is also known as INTENSIVE TREATMENT UNIT (ITU) OR CRITICAL CARE UNIT (CCU). Unlike other wards in the hospital, intensive care unit has the most advanced and highly newfangled equipment which is handled by directing physician. It can be an uphill task when some severe illness has struck you, and you are not able to locate one final stop. Intensive care units are made to tackle such issues alongside treat severe and life-threatening injuries and damages caused by multiple reasons like accidents. Any patient is kept in an ICU when he or she is going through some fatal illnesses that need to be taken care of. Or ICU also caters patients who need to be supervised and monitored closely. Intensive care unit is more likely to deal with patients who are facing organ failure and needs to be accompanied by a ventilator for survival. Modern respiratory support is one vital reason why doctors refer emergency cases into an ICU.

In ICU’s the medical staff earmarked is distinctly qualified and trained to handle the prime of cases. Tremendously experienced and well-trained physician, highly qualified attendant or nurses, protagonists in various requisite fields of exigency such as respiratory therapists, cardiologist or an anesthetic. ICU’s are different from the normal wards of any hospital. Normal wards may lack the types of equipment and technologies that are utilized in ICU’s. Even the staff or doctors spotted in ICU’s and other wards are poles apart from each other. Access to modern pieces of equipment and various such distinguished treatment method is seen only in ICU and not elsewhere. Common diseases and injuries that can be treated within the supervision and care of doctors in casual wards are tried to cure within the walls of wards. Normal conditions that are treated within the ICU incorporates intense respiratory illness disorders, septic shock, and other dangerous conditions. Patients are referred from ICU to the normal ward or vice versa depending upon their health. If the condition worsens or has the possibility of deteriorating after surgery is kept under the ICU monitoring, or in some fortunate cases, if the report favors patients will, then he or she is immediately put onto the normal ward. In the ICU, the medical staff deployed ensures the accuracy and proper functioning of all the types of equipment to keep the work going.

ICU Equipments:

Pieces of equipment utilized in the ICU fluctuates from the overall. For example, an instrument to measure pulse, bedside screens and ventilators. Alongside, the other major gears of ICU are as follows:

Beds
Ventilators
Breathing tube
Syringe driver
Nasogastric tubes
Continuous positive airway pressure
Blood Warmer
Drains
Tracheostomy tube, and the list goes on.

ICU bedside monitors
Endotracheal tube
Intravenous infusion pump
Syringe pump
Indwelling urinary catheter
Bilevel positive airway pressure
Defibrillator
Suction pumps

Wide range of other drugs is also taken into consideration for reducing pain post-surgery, to avoid infections or any kind side effects. All fields of medicine have direct or indirect relevance with ICU and the thread starts with the health reports of the patient. May it be Cardiology, Oncology, Gynaecology, Neurology, or Dermatology all such major medical therapies and surgeries are interconnected with ICU. The Coronary Care Unit (CCU) or Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) is a specially dedicated unit only for Cardiology. A patient who has recently suffered from her attack or unstable angina or any such severe heart-related issues needs to be tackled carefully hence CCU or CICU comes to the rescue.