Organization of Neuro Critical Care Unit and Admission Criteria
Gyung Whan Kim, MD, PhD
Department of Neurology, Stroke and Neurocritical Care, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
ABSTRACT
Neurocritical care is simultaneously one of the oldest and newest aspects of medicine. The goals of neurocritical care date back at least to the 16th century, the time of Paracelsus, who introduced the concept of resuscitation. However, the modern threads of neurocritical care begin with neurosurgical work of MacEwen and Hutchinson in the 19th century, and Cushing in the 20th. Parallel developments in mechanical ventilation led to the first large-scale use of this technique in the poliomyelitis epidemics of the first half of the 20th century, when neurologists were the physicians for patients with ventilatory failure, and the nurses for these patients were the first critical care practitioners. The concept of an intensive care unit based on the advantages of concentrating the care of the sickest patients, rather than on a particular device, begins with Peter Safar at the Baltimore city hospital in 1963. In this manuscript, I focused organization of neurocritical care unit and admission criteria.