Intensive Care Medicine
Intensive care medicine is a subspecialty of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening illnesses that necessitate organ support and intrusive auditing. Instability, acute renal failure, respiratory compromise, deadly cardiac arrhythmias, or the escalating effects of multiple organ failure, more commonly referred to now as multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, may necessitate urgent care. They may also be used for invasive auditing, such as in the critical hours following major surgery when the patient is too unstable to be moved to a less extensively audited unit. Intensive care is usually reserved for patients who have a possibly reversible ailment and a good probability of surviving with the help of intensive care. The ability to fight the underlying case is a key prerequisite for admittance to an intensive care unit (ICU). Critical care medicine is a relatively new but increasingly important medical specialty. Physicians with training in critical care medicine are referred to as intensivists.
- Coronary intensive care unit (CCU)
- Medical intensive care unit (MICU)
- Surgical intensive care unit (SICU)