Intensive Medicine

“The good doctor treats the disease; the great doctor treats the patient who has the disease. ”

William Osler.

Intensive Medicine is the medical branch specialized in supporting critically ill patients or providing continuous and intensive monitoring derived from an acute illness or trauma (accident) that puts lives at risk.

Intensive treatment for a patient is usually arduous, constant, and mandatory. Patients who end up in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) are very frail patients by nature.

Intensive care physicians comprehensively approach the patient so that they can report a generalized state of the critical systems of the patient's body, such as:

• Cardiovascular system
• Central Nervous System
• Endocrine system
• Gastrointestinal tract (and nutritional status)
• Hematology
• Microbiology (including septic status)
• Peripheries (and skin)
• Renal (and metabolic) systems
• Respiratory system

By reviewing each system, the physician decides how to focus their care to preserve life.

Among the functions that these doctors can carry out are:

• Evaluation, monitoring, and review of patients at risk
• Support of organs to carry out their functions.
• Mechanic ventilation
• Invasive monitoring
• Endotracheal intubation
• Tracheostomies

Among many other functions and procedures.

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