Intensive Care Medicine or critical care
medicine is a branch of medicine concerned with the provision
of life support or organ support systems in patients who
are critically ill who usually also require intensive monitoring.
Patients requiring intensive care usually
require support for hemodynamic instability (hypertension/hypotension),
airway or respiratory compromise (such as ventilator support),
acute renal failure, potentially lethal cardiac dysrhytmias,
and frequently the cummulative affects of muliple organ
system failure. Patients admitted to the intensive care
unit not requiring support for the above are usually admitted
for intensive/invasive monitoring, such as the crucial hours
after major surgery when deemed too unstable to transfer
to a less intensively monitored unit.
Ideally, intensive care is usually only
offered to those whose condition is potentially reversible
and who have a good chance of surviving with intensive care
support. Since the critically ill are close to dying the
outcome of this intervention is difficult to predict. Many
patients therefore still die in the Intensive Care Unit.
A prime requisite for admission to an Intensive Care Unit
is that the underlying condition can be overcome. Therefore
treatment is merely meant to win time in which the acute
affliction can be resolved.