page_title: Intensive care unit
section_title: Specialities
hierarchical_section_title: Intensive care unit / Specialities
caption_attribution_description: English: Nurses working to bring comfort to a sick baby. babies become very stressed when exposed to cold and are especially prone to cold stress when fighting disease. Nurses and midwives protect vulnerable babies in warm incubators.Geraldton Western Australia
context_page_description: An intensive care unit, also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit or critical care unit, is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive care medicine.
  Intensive care units cater to patients with severe or life-threatening illnesses and injuries, which require constant care, close supervision from life support equipment and medication in order to ensure normal bodily functions. They are staffed by highly trained physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists who specialize in caring for critically ill patients. ICUs are also distinguished from general hospital wards by a higher staff-to-patient ratio and access to advanced medical resources and equipment that is not routinely available elsewhere. Common conditions that are treated within ICUs include acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock and other life-threatening conditions.
  Patients may be referred directly from an emergency department or from a ward if they rapidly deteriorate, or immediately after surgery if the surgery is very invasive and the patient is at high risk of complications.
context_section_description: Hospitals may have ICUs that cater to a specific medical requirement or patient, such as those listed below:
  Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This specialty unit cares for neonatal patients who have not left the hospital after birth. Common conditions cared for include prematurity and associated complications, congenital disorders such as congenital diaphragmatic hernia, or complications resulting from the birthing process.
  Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Pediatric patients are treated in this intensive care unit for life-threatening conditions such as asthma, influenza, diabetic ketoacidosis, or traumatic neurological injury. Surgical cases may also be referred to the PICU postoperatively if the patient has a potential for rapid deterioration or if the patient requires monitoring, such as spinal infusions or surgeries involving the respiratory system such as removal of the tonsils or adenoids. Some facilities also have specialized pediatric cardiac intensive care units, for patients with congenital heart disease are treated. These units also typically cater for cardiac transplantation and postoperative cardiac catheterization patients if those services are offered at the hospital.
  Geriatric intensive-care unit (GICU), a special intensive care unit dedicated to management of critically ill elderly.
  Psychiatric intensive care unit (PsICU). Patients who may voluntarily harm themselves are brought here for more vigorous monitoring.
  Coronary care unit (CCU): Also known as Cardiac Intensive Care Units (CICU) or Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU), this ICU caters to patients specifically with congenital heart defects or life-threatening cardiac conditions such as a myocardial infarction or a cardiac arrest.
  Neurological Intensive Care Unit (NeuroICU). Patients are treated for brain aneurysms, brain tumors, stroke, rattlesnake bites and post surgical patients who have undergone various neurological surgeries performed by experienced neurosurgeons  require constant neurological exams. Nurses who work within these units have neurological certifications. Once the patients are stable and removed from the ventilator, they are transferred to a neurological care unit.
  Traumatic Intensive Care Unit (TICU). These are found in hospitals certified in treating traumatic injuries/illnesses requiring a dedicated Trauma Emergency team equipped with the expertise to deal with serious complications. A traumatic specialist team includes surgeons, nurses, respiratory therapists, and radiological staff.
  Post-anesthesia care unit (PACU): Also known as the post-operative recovery unit, or recovery room, the PACU provides immediate post-op observation and stabilisation of patients following surgical operations and anesthesia. Patients are usually held in such facilities for a limited amount of time and have to meet set physiological aspects before being transferred back to a ward with a qualified nurse escort. Owing to high patient flow in recovery units, and to the bed management cycle, if a patient breaches a time frame and is too unstable to be transferred back to a ward, they are normally transferred to a high dependency unit (HDU) or post-operative critical care unit (POCCU) in order to receive progressive treatment.
  High dependency unit (HDU): In the United Kingdom and elsewhere (known as step down unit or progressive care unit in North America), most acute hospitals have a transitional high dependency unit (HDU) for patients who require close observation, treatment and nursing care that cannot be provided in a general ward, but whose care is not at a critical stage to warrant an (ICU) bed. These units are also called step-down or progressive intensive recovery units and are utilised until a patient's condition stabilizes to qualify for discharge to a general ward or recovery unit.
  Surgical intensive care unit (SICU): Also known as the surgery critical care unit, the SICU is a specialized service in larger hospitals that provides inpatient care for critically ill patients on surgical services.  As opposed to other ICUs, the ca
caption: Nurses in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)
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