Critical Care Summary Critical care helps people with life-threatening injuries and illnesses. It might treat problems such as complications from surgery, accidents, infections, and severe breathing problems. It involves close, constant attention by a team of specially-trained health care providers. Critical care usually takes place in an intensive care unit (ICU) or trauma center. Monitors, intravenous (IV) tubes, feeding tubes, catheters, breathing machines, and other equipment are common in critical care units. They can keep a person alive, but can also increase the risk of infection. Many patients in critical care recover, but some die. Having advance directives in place is important. They help health care providers and family members make end-of-life decisions if you are not able to make them. Treatments and Therapies Arterial Catheterization American Thoracic Society Chest Tube Thoracostomy American Thoracic Society Tracheostomy National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute What Is a Ventilator? National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Array Central venous catheter – dressing change Central venous catheter – flushing Chest tube insertion – slideshow Peripherally inserted central catheter – dressing change Peripherally inserted central catheter – flushing Peripherally inserted central catheter – insertion Tracheostomy – slideshow Encyclopedia Chest tube insertion Extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation Mechanical ventilator – infants NICU consultants and support staff Swan-Ganz – right heart catheterization Tracheostomy Tracheostomy care Related Issues Chronic Critical Illness Society of Critical Care Medicine Critical Care Team Society of Critical Care Medicine Clinical Trials ClinicalTrials.gov: Intensive Care National Institutes of Health ClinicalTrials.gov: Life Support Care National Institutes of Health ClinicalTrials.gov: Tracheostomy National Institutes of Health ClinicalTrials.gov: Ventilators, Mechanical National Institutes of Health Children Common Diagnoses in the NICU Nemours Foundation Common NICU Equipment March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation Common Parent Reactions to the NICU American Academy of Pediatrics Managing Home Health Care (For Parents) Nemours Foundation What Is a Pediatric Critical Care Specialist? American Academy of Pediatrics When Your Baby’s in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) Nemours Foundation When Your Child’s in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Nemours Foundation Statistics and Research Critical Care Statistics Society of Critical Care Medicine Trauma National Institute of General Medical Sciences Find an Expert National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Journal Articles Critical care – adults Critical care – children Start Here What to Expect When a Loved One Is Critically Ill American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Latest News Persistent Critical Illness May Keep Patients from Leaving ICU HealthDay
