Pattern of Admitted Cases in Respiratory Intensive Care Unit at Assiut University Hospitals

Human health comprises many different states, ranging from perfect health to critical illness, so medical facilities should be able to provide medical assistance tailored to the patient's degree of disease.

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) serves as a place for monitoring and care of patients with potentially severe physiologic instability requiring technical and/or artificial life support. The level of care in an ICU is greater than that available on the floor or Intermediate Care Unit.

Because of the utilization of expensive resources, ICUs should, in general, be reserved for those patients with reversible medical conditions who have a "reasonable prospect of substantial recovery".

About one third of hospital mortality occurs in critically ill patients in the intensive care unit. On the other hand, critically ill patients are responsible for 10 - 20 % of global hospital costs.

It is well accepted that early appropriate referral of patients to an ICU can significantly reduce early and possibly late mortality in the critically ill.At the same time improper selection of patients for ICU who block ICU beds often limits bed availability in ICUs. This in turn adversely affects the dynamics the whole hospital.

The Respiratory Intensive Care Unit (RICU) is an area that provides closed monitoring and intensive treatment for patients with acute or exacerbated respiratory failure caused by a disease that is primarily respiratory.