Critical Care Medicine

Some pulmonologists may also sub-specialize in critical care medicine, treating patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This is a specialized section of the hospital that provides comprehensive and continuous care for persons who are critically ill and who can benefit from treatment. Typically patients are medically unstable, may have suffered traumatic injury or have undergone emergent surgical interventions which continue to require intensive level of care.

Some of these conditions are:

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA)
Abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia)
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
Anemia
Aspiration
Asthma
Brain aneurysm
Brain death
Cardiac arrest
Coma
Congestive heart failure (CHF)
Diabetes
Empyema

Esophageal varices
Gastrointestinal bleeding
Heart attack
Hemothorax
Kidney (renal) failure
Liver failure (cirrhosis)
Overdose
Pancreatitis
Pneumonia
Pulmonary embolism
Seizure
Sepsis
Shock
Stroke
Traumatic brain injury