Intensive respiratory care unit. Review of ten years' experience
T. L. Petty, S. Lakshminarayan, S. A. Sahn, C. W. Zwillich and L. M. Nett
In ten years' experience in the respiratory care units serving both medical
and surgical patients, 18,077 consecutive patients received ventilatory
support for 24 hours or more. The overall survival rate including all
patients was 75.2%. Survival rate has not changed appreciably during the
past five years. The respiratory care unit provides technical assistance
and consultation to primary physicians of the medical and surgical
services. This system of intensive respiratory care is flexible and
applicable to general hospitals that treat large numbers of patients with
acute respiratory respiratory failure.
