2020 was dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic and thus a clinical area that has developed particularly strongly in recent years came into focus: intensive care medicine. In the January issue, Bild der Wissenschaft therefore now sheds light on what patients in an intensive care unit can expect these days, what modern medical devices can achieve and what the major challenges are. One focus is on artificial ventilation, which plays such a major role in the treatment of Covid 19 patients.
It is the most highly developed area of a hospital and also the most feared: “The patient had to be transferred to the intensive care unit” – this information is often a shock for relatives. Many people associate this facility with eerie technology and death. In this context, the cover story now provides insights into the literally intense struggle in which devices, doctors, nurses and also the patients themselves are involved. A fundamentally important message is: For most patients, the intensive care unit is a bridge back to life – this also applies in the case of Covid-19.
In the first article of the two-part title topic, bdw author Susanne Donner takes a fundamental look at the topic of intensive care medicine. She reports how this area, which is characterized by technology and complex treatment processes, came about and what enormous progress has been made over the past decades. The author explains which bodily functions need to be maintained most frequently in the intensive care unit, which procedures are used and which complications occur most frequently.
Of successes, challenges and Covid-19 shortness of breath
The article “Winning the fight” is rounded off by personal insights into the work of intensive care physicians and nursing staff: They report on their experiences and the often enormous challenges in “intensive care”. Donner is also targeting current developments: According to this, artificial intelligence is increasingly finding its way into intensive care medicine. The adaptive computer systems can help doctors, among other things, as “assistants” to identify the most promising treatment methods for patients.
In the second part of the title topic, the focus is on the intensive medical treatment measure that has become particularly important in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic: artificial ventilation. The bdw author Frank Frick explains why it is necessary for infectious diseases and what forms of treatment there are. Which one is used depends on the condition and the course of the disease of the respective patient. As the author reports, medical professionals can now fall back on some experience with the ventilation of Covid-19 patients. This is also reflected in the successes: Most ventilated people survive and the proportion of those who have died in an intensive care unit has fallen significantly since April, according to the article “Breathlessness”.
You can find out more in the January issue of bild der Wissenschaft, which will be available in stores from December 15th.