Intensive Care in Emergency Care Unit : from the standpoint of resuscitation and team care(Intensive Care in Snrgical Fields)

Emergency Care Unit（ECU）in Niigata University Hospital was opened for‘the third degree’emergency treatment and intensive care of criticaly ill patients in Niigata prefecture the 1st December, 1980. Two hundred and twenty-two patients have been admitted to the ECU in these five years. The diseases treated in the ECU were divided into six categories: circulatory failure（42.3%）, postoperative intensive care（18.9%）, multiple trauma（11.3%）, respiratory failure（6.3%）, severe burn（5.9%）, intoxication（4.5%）, neurological disturbance（4.1%）, miscellaneous（6.8%）. The average duration of emergency care was 3.8 days, with mortalilty rate of 19%. The patients admitted in the ECU were transported to sixteen clinical departments after the intensive treatment. Through these experiences in ECU, it was stressed that the close communication among staffs of the related departments was crucial for the advancement of patient care in the ECU. We are grateful to the related staffs for their valuable suggestions and assistances in the ECU