Definition of intensive care unit Intensive care unit
We found 2 definitions of intensive care unit from 2 different sources.
Advertising
What does intensive care unit mean?
WordNet
Noun |
||
| intensive care unit - a hospital unit staffed and equipped to provide intensive care | ||
| ICU | ||
| social unit, unit a single undivided whole; "an idea is not a unit that can be moved from one brain to another" | ||
| hospital a health facility where patients receive treatment | ||
| coronary care unit a hospital unit specially staffed and equipped to treat patients with serious cardiac problems | ||
= synonym
= antonym
= related word
= antonym
= related word
Wikipedia 
-
An Intensive Care Unit ("ICU"), also called Critical Care Unit ("CCU"), Intensive Therapy Unity, "Intensive Treatment Unit (both "ITU") is a specialised section of a hospital. Usually, patients that are in a critical situation are sent there. Such patients usually need to be monitored more closely, to be able to react fast, when their situation changes.
History.
To be able to respond to a polio epidemic, Bjørn Ibsen established the first intensive care unit in Copenhagen in 1953. Patioents with polio require more ventilation than normal; thats why Ibsen set up a special unit for them. The first application of this idea in the US was pioneered by Dr. William Mosenthal, a surgeon at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. In the 1960s, the importance of cardiac arrhythmias as a source of morbidity and mortality in myocardial infarctions (Heart Attacks) was recognized. This led to the routine use of cardiac monitoring in ICUs, especially in the post-MI setting.
