Intensive Cardiac Care Unit
Quick Facts
The Unit has 13 beds with centralized monitoring for intensive cardiological care, and can count on 12 cardiologists, 24 nurses and a nurse coordinator dedicated to inpatient care. The majority (68%) of the admissions carried out, has been from the Emergency Department, the 118 service, or transferred from other centers ("spoke"). The remaining admissions from inpatient wards and interventional laboratories.
This Unit has 13 beds with centralized monitoring for intensive cardiological care. On average, almost 1,000 patients suffer from acute cardiological diseases (acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, heart failure and shock, brady- and tachi-arrhythmias, systemic and pulmonary embolisms) and internistic (respiratory, circulatory and renal insufficiency).
All the staff has acquired experience in the most modern techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of all acute cardiological diseases and their complications: primary coronary angioplasty in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction (in collaboration with the Interventional Cardiology), aortic counterpulsation in cardiogenic shock, treatment of severe heart failure and acute renal failure by techniques replacing renal function (hemodialysis, ultrafiltration, hemofiltration), temporary cardio-electrical stimulation (for brady-and tachycardia) and mechanical ventilatory assistance, both invasive and non-invasive, in patients with acute respiratory failure.
The Unit has the most modern and high-tech diagnostic procedures and specialized therapies both in the field of treatment of acute myocardial infarction, and all other critical pathologies.
The Intensive Care Unit deals with the treatment of patients with congestive, refractory and non-reactive heart failure, which, due to their clinical condition, require procedures replacing renal function, in particular ultrafiltration and extracorporeal hemofiltration. In this field he has gained, in more than 25 years of activity, considerable clinical experience (probably the most important case studies in the world in the application of these methods in the cardiological field) and developed clinical treatment protocols.
In addition, in collaboration with the Interventional Cardiology, preventive treatment of acute renal failure from exposure to contrast during interventional cardiology procedures is routinely carried out. This aim is pursued through various methods of treatment, both pharmacological and not (hemofiltration, controlled hydration), customized in relation to the severity of the patient’s risk and the clinical context.
UTIC has also become a reference centre for the diagnosis and treatment of pericardial effusions. The pericardiocentesis with percutaneous technique, refined on the basis of a wide range of cases, is performed under direct echocardiographic and radioscopic control in the operating room, thus ensuring the highest degree of clinical and procedural monitoring with a low level of invasiveness. In collaboration with the Cardiology Unit of the European Institute of Oncology, a protocol for intrapericardial chemotherapy treatment in cases of pericardial effusion of a neoplastic nature has also been developed.