ICU is that unit of an hospital which provides life-saving interventions, monitoring vital signs, addressing respiratory distress, promoting healthy growth, and supporting the overall well-being of patient. ICU facilities and technologies have advanced significantly in recent years, with the development of new equipment and medical devices. These include mechanical ventilators, monitoring equipment, specialized medical devices, and advanced imaging equipment. In addition to these technologies it also includes, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a specialized medical facility that provides intensive care to newborn infants who are critically ill or born prematurely.

Types of ICU

The article has tried to compile the ICU environment and provide clear understanding of the equipment and procedure involved in delivering critical care. ICU facilities available in hospitals are classified in various types :

1. Regular ICU

Provide regular intensive care for patient who are extremely unstable or near death, needing an even higher level of care.

2. Coronary Intensive care unit

Such units are equipped with intensive care facilities for patients with heart related diseases like cardiac arrest, myocardial infraction.

3. Geriatric Intensive care unit

This type of intensive care is specially for critically ill elderly people.

4. Neonatal intensive care unit

This unit in a hospital that is dedicated to caring for newborns who are preterm or ill. Specialized medical staff, nurses, other experts, and equipment are available at NICUs to care for ill and premature infants.

5. Pediatric intensive care unit

The PICU is the section of the hospital that provides sick children with the highest level of medical care in life threatening disease like asthma, influenza, diabetic ketoacidosis, or traumatic neurological injury. Other areas of the hospital, such as the general medical floors, are different from it. Children get close monitoring of their heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure as well as extensive nurse care in the PICU.

6. Trauma intensive care unit

These can be found in hospitals that are trained to treat major trauma and have a specialized trauma team that is qualified to handle serious consequences.

7. Surgical intensive care unit

A specialized department in larger hospitals that offers severely ill patients surgical services while they are hospitalized. As opposed to other ICUs, the care is managed by surgeons or anesthesiologists trained in critical care.

8. Psychiatric intensive care

Patients who might intentionally hurt themselves are brought in for closer observation.

9. Intensive neurological care

Patients who have undergone various neurological procedures conducted by skilled neurosurgeons require ongoing neurological evaluations. Patients are treated for traumatic brain and spinal injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, brain tumors, stroke, rattlesnake bites, and post-surgery patients.

10. Post-anaesthetic care facility

After surgery and anesthesia, provides prompt post-op surveillance and patient stabilization.

Different classes in ICU are equipped with some common and some specific types of instruments based on the units specialization to treat patient. The list of facilities generally included in the various ICU types is given in Table No.1

Instruments: -

Brief Information of the Instruments used in Intensive Care Unit

Patients Monitor:- In order to track a patient's health and provide them with high-quality medical care, patient monitors are tools that measure, record, and display a variety of patient parameters, including heart rate and rhythm SPO2, blood pressure, temperature, respiratory rate, etc. During an operation, the surgeon must have continuous access to a patient's vital signs to mitigate the risk of something negative happening.

Ventilator:- Mechanical ventilators are machines that act as below to move air in and out of your lungs. The ventilator is programmed by your respiratory therapist and doctor to regulate how much and how frequently air is forced into your lungs. To get air from the ventilator into your lungs, you can be given a mask.

1. Provide oxygen to lungs.
2. Helps remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from your lungs.
3. Provides pressure to keep the small air sacs in your lungs (alveoli) from collapsing.
4. The settings on the device can be changed by the providers to suit your unique requirements.

Endotracheal Tube (ETT or breathing tube): - An endotracheal tube is a long plastic tube used during invasive ventilation a flexible tube called an endotracheal tube, or ET tube, is inserted into the trachea (windpipe) through the mouth or nose and connected to lungs. The tube's exterior end is then connected to specialized tubing that is  linked to a ventilator. It is used to support breathing in patients who have lungs illness, heart failure, chest injuries, or an  airway obstruction, as well as during surgery.

Kidney Machines (Dialyzer):-Some patients’ kidneys stop working due to their illness. The kidneys work to filter the blood and remove waste products (and in doing so produce urine) so if they fail, it is important that the machines take over this job. To   do this a special large tube is put into one of the big veins in the leg or neck. Four processes make up the fundamental process for dialyzer reprocessing: rinsing, cleaning,          performance testing, and disinfection and sterilization. Processing a dialyzer can be done manually or with the use of automated machinery.

Ultra sound:- Most of the ultrasound machines used in the intensive care are portable and could be used at the bedside. The ultrasound machine has a probe attached to a monitor screen, and high frequency sounds are emitted from the probe. The probe is placed on the part of the body to be examined and images are obtained based on the density of the organ such as bone, muscle or a blood vessel.

Scan: CT & MRI :- Patients in the intensive care unit may need further investigation in terms of a computerized tomography scan (CT or CAT scan) or an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of their head, chest or abdomen These investigations provide detailed radiological images that a standard x-ray film cannot provide. The patient needs to be taken to the x-ray department in order to get these investigations. This will be done by a doctor and a nurse who are trained to manage the patient during the process  of the transfer.

ECG :- Here is a further component of an important ICU device. A graph that displays the timing of a person's heart electrical activity is called an electrocardiogram (ECG). They pinpoint the electrical activity of a cardiac cycle. They  identify a cardiac cycle’s electrical activity. The two electrode types that are most frequently used are the circular self-adhesive patches and the thin paper stickers.

IV Pumps: The use of an intravenous catheter is required to provide a large number of  the drugs and treatments provided in the ICU into the bloodstream directly (IV) These medications can be given by the ICU staff members using a programmed IV pump in  the form of a steady stream (infusions) or extra dosages (boluses). You'll regularly see the nursing staff administering medications to patients, linking IV pumps to medications, and setting  doses when an alert sounds

Brief Information of Instruments used in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Isolette / Incubators:- Premature newborns often require incubators to maintain their body temperature and protect them from infection. Incubators are enclosed cribs that can be heated and have humidity control. Isolette / Incubator is a clear plastic box with an open bed and a radiant warmer.

Monitor:- These devices measure your baby's vital signs. Common devices used to check vital signs include:
A sensor on the chest used to measure heart and breathing rates using a cardiopulmonary monitor.                                                     
A sensor that measures the temperature on the skin.
A cuff worn on the arm or leg to measure blood pressure.
A cuff is placed around the hand or foot to measure the relative amount of oxygen in the blood.

Phototherapy Lights:- Newborns with jaundice may require phototherapy, which involves exposure to special lights that help break down the excess bilirubin in their blood. Phototherapy lights emit light in the blue-green spectrum (wavelengths 430-490 nm). It is not ultraviolet light. The decrease in total serum bilirubin level is used to gauge the clinical impact of light sources.

Intravenous Therapy Equipment:- Newborns in the NICU often require medications and fluids to be delivered intravenously. Specialty infusion pumps and IV catheters are used to deliver these substances at a precise rate. A vein can be used to administer fluids, medications, nutrition, or blood through intravenous therapy, or IV (in-trah-VEE-nus). IV therapy uses a needle, a small plastic tube called a cannula that inserts into a vein, and plastic tubing to link the apparatus to a bag of fluid. The parts are referred to collectively as an "IV."

Specialty Beds:- Newborns in the NICU may require specialized beds that can be adjusted for their medical needs. For example, some beds can be inclined to improve respiratory function or have built-in monitoring equipment.

Isolation Rooms:- Newborns with infectious diseases may be placed in isolation rooms within the NICU to prevent the spread of infection to other babies and staff.