Health Care Activity
critical care
[ krit-i-kuhl kair ]
Subclass of:
patient care
Also called:
Intensive care
Definitions related to care of intensive care unit patient:
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(critical care) Health care provided at any location to a critically ill patient during a medical emergency or crisis.CRISP ThesaurusNational Institutes of Health, 2006
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(critical care) Health care provided to a critically ill patient during a medical emergency or crisis.NLM Medical Subject HeadingsU.S. National Library of Medicine, 2021
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(critical care) Critical care is medical care for people who have life-threatening injuries and illnesses. It usually takes place in an intensive care unit (ICU). A team of specially-trained health care providers gives you 24-hour care. This includes using machines to constantly monitor your vital signs. It also usually involves giving you specialized treatments. You need critical care if you have a life-threatening illness or injury, such as: Severe burns; COVID-19; Heart attack; Heart failure; Kidney failure; People recovering from certain major surgeries; Respiratory failure; Sepsis; Severe bleeding; Serious infections; Serious injuries, such as from car crashes, falls, and shootings; Shock; Stroke. In a critical care unit, health care providers use lots of different equipment, including Catheters, flexible tubes used to get fluids into the body or to drain fluids from the body; Dialysis machines ("artificial kidneys") for people with kidney failure; Feeding tubes, which give you nutritional support; Intravenous (IV) tubes to give you fluids and medicines; Machines which check your vital signs and display them on monitors; Oxygen therapy to give you extra oxygen to breathe in; Tracheostomy tubes, which are breathing tubes. The tube is placed in a surgically made hole that goes through the front...MedlinePlusU.S. National Library of Medicine, 2021
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