ICU Full Form in english and hindi | What is Intensive Care Unit

ICU Full Form in English and Hindi | What is Intensive Care Unit

ICU Full Form in English: Intensive Care Unit

ICU full form is Intensive Care Unit. ICU is also known as intensive therapy unit, Intensive treatment Unit or critical care unit. Different countries have different full form and names but the meaning of all these is the same. ICU refers to a specific section in any hospital or healthcare organization which provides medicines for intensive treatment.

A person is referred to ICU when he or she faces any life-threatening illness or injuries. The condition is so severe that constant care and supervision with the help of medical machines to keep all the function of body in check.

ICU Full Form in Hindi: गहन चिकित्सा विभाग

The staff of an ICU includes expert physicians and nurses. Their specialization is the care and treatment of critical cases. The ratio of staff to the patient in an ICU is really high as compared to general wards in the hospitals.

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An ICU has advanced equipment and machines which are needed in severe cases. The diseases which are generally referred to an ICU are extreme respiratory distress, metastases, hypertension etc.

Depending on the condition of the patients, they can be shifted to ICU from the emergency department, general ward or after surgery in which the risk is extremely high.

Machines and Equipments in an ICU:

The following systems must be included in every ICU:
Mechanical Ventilators: to assist breathing through endotracheal or tracheostomy tube.
Cardiac monitors
Equipment to monitor all the function of the body
Tubes for feeding, nasogastric tube, suction pump, drains
Various drugs for various primary conditions
Induced sedation, induced comas, analgesics tools for reducing pain and prevention of infectionsICU for Specific Medical Conditions:

Many hospitals have specialized ICU for specific treatment of the patient. To name a few:

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU): For patients with life-threatening conditions such as asthma, traumatic neurological injury, influenza.
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU): For the patients who are in the hospital since their birth.
Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU): For those who harm themselves or others because of mental disorder.
Coronary/Cardiac Care Unit (CCU): For patients with cardiac conditions which are life threatening such as heart attack.
Neurological Intensive Care Unit (NeuroICU): Patients with brain tumours, brain stroke or any other brain damage. The nurses working in this unit must have a neurological certification.
Post-anesthesia Care Unit (PACU): For intensive care of patients following operations and anaesthesia until they are stable.
High Dependency Unit (HDU): For patients who require close observation and treatment but not an ICU bed.
Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU): In this, the care of a patient is done by surgeons.
Mobile intensive care unit (MICU): A advanced version of the ambulance which has the equipments for Life Support and care during transport. Generally used during the transfer of the patient from one hospital to another.

Quality of Care:

According to studies, every 2 patients must have 1 nurse for any medical Intensive Care Unit. But normally the ratio of patients to nurse is 4or5 is to 1. This ratio is different in various countries. in Australia and UK, the staff of ICU is in the ratio of 2:1 for high dependency patients and 1:1 for extremely critical cases.

International guidelines suggest that every patient in ICU must be checked delirium (twice or as required in a day) with the help of clinical tools.

Remote Collaboration Systems

Nowadays, hospitals have conferencing systems to facilitate the on-site staff and patients in another location contact the expert doctors and nurses at the central hospital. This is known as eICU or virtual ICU. The central staff has access to live monitoring systems, health records to know about the medical history of the patient. These facilities make sure that the treatment in the remote areas is going as prescribed.