Critical Care: market research reports

Critical care, or intensive care, is the branch of medicine concerned with life threatening injuries or illnesses. Usually taking place in a critical or intensive care unit (CCU or ICU) or trauma center, specially trained health professionals meet the needs of critical patients by treating complications of surgery, accidents, infections and severe breathing problems.

Equipment used in a CCU is designed to care for patients requiring 24-hour care and monitoring.

This consists of life support and emergency resuscitation devices, equipment for patient monitoring, pain management devices and equipment for respiratory and cardiac support.

Patient monitoring equipment includes acute care physiologic monitoring systems that continuously measure vital signs, pulse oximeters to monitor oxygen saturation in the blood, intracranial pressure monitors which measure fluid pressure in the brain and apnea monitors used for continuous monitoring of breathing to detect cessation in infants and adults at risk of respiratory failure.

Equipment used in the CCU for life support and emergency resuscitation include ventilators (or respirators) which aid in pulmonary ventilation in patients who cannot breathe on their own, infusion pumps to deliver anesthesia, medications and blood infusions, crash carts containing emergency resuscitation devices such as defibrillators, airway intubation devices and resuscitation masks, and intra-aortic balloon pumps used for patients with myocardial infarction, unstable angina and those awaiting transplants.