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World J Crit Care Med. Aug 4, 2015; 4(3): 240-243
Published online Aug 4, 2015. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v4.i3.240
Intensive care organisation: Should there be a separate intensive care unit for critically injured patients?
Tim K Timmers, Michiel HJ Verhofstad, Luke PH Leenen
Tim K Timmers, Luke PH Leenen, Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands
Michiel HJ Verhofstad, Department of Surgery, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author contributions: Timmers TK designed the research; Timmers TK and Leenen LPH performed the research; Timmers TK, Verhofstad MHJ and Leenen LPH wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declared that they have no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tim K Timmers, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Utrecht, P.O.-box 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands. tk.timmers@gmail.com
Telephone: +31-88-7559882 Fax: +31-88-7555555
Received: December 20, 2014
Peer-review started: December 21, 2014
First decision: February 7, 2015
Revised: March 12, 2015
Accepted: April 27, 2015
Article in press: April 29, 2015
Published online: August 4, 2015
Processing time: 240 Days and 2.9 Hours
Abstract

In the last two decennia, the mixed population general intensive care unit (ICU) with a “closed format” setting has gained in favour compared to the specialized critical care units with an “open format” setting. However, there are still questions whether surgical patients benefit from a general mixed ICU. Trauma is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Major or severe trauma requiring immediate surgical intervention and/or intensive care treatment. The role and type of the ICU has received very little attention in the literature when analyzing outcomes from critical injuries. Severely injured patients require the years of experience in complex trauma care that only a surgery/trauma ICU can provide. Should a trauma center have the capability of a separate specialized ICU for trauma patients (“closed format”) next to its standard general mixed ICU

Keywords: Intensive trauma care; Trauma intensive care; Critical care; Intensive care medicine; Trauma

Core tip: Trauma is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Major or severe trauma requires immediate surgical intervention and/or intensive care treatment. Severely injured patients require the years of experience in complex trauma care that only a surgery/ trauma intensive care unit can provide.