The origin of this important branch of medicine lies in the effective use of positive-pressure VENTILATION of the lungs to treat respiratory breathing failure in patients affected by POLIOMYELITIS in an outbreak of this potentially fatal disease in Denmark in 1952. Doctors reduced mortality from 90 per cent to 40 per cent in patients receiving respiratory support with the traditional cuirass ventilator (iron lung) by using the new technique. They achieved this with a combination of manual positive-pressure ventilation provided through a TRACHEOSTOMY and by looking after the patients in a specific area of the hospital, allowing the necessary staffing and equipment resources to be concentrated in one place.

The principle of one-to-one, 24-hours-a-day care for seriously ill patients has been widely adopted and developed for the initial treatment of many patients with life-threatening conditions. Thus, severely injured patients, those with serious medical conditions such as coronary thrombosis or who have undergone major surgery, and individuals suffering from potentially lethal toxic effects of poisons are treated in an INTENSIVE THERAPY UNIT (ITU). Patients whose respiratory or circulatory systems have failed benefit especially by being intensively treated. Most patients, especially post-operative ones, leave intensive care when their condition has been stabilised, usually after 24 or 48 hours. Some, however, need support for several weeks or even months. Intensive care medicine has become a valued specialty – and a demanding one because of the range of skills needed by the doctors and nurses manning the ITUs.