title: Intensive care medicine is 60 years old: the history and future of the intensive care unit.
abstract: Intensive care is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. The concept arose from the devastating Copenhagen polio epidemic of 1952, which resulted in hundreds of victims experiencing respiratory and bulbar failure. Over 300 patients required artificial ventilation for several weeks. This was provided by 1,000 medical and dental students who were employed to hand ventilate the lungs of these patients via tracheostomies. By 1953, Bjorn Ibsen, the anaesthetist who had suggested that positive pressure ventilation should be the treatment of choice during the epidemic, had set up the first intensive care unit (ICU) in Europe, gathering together physicians and physiologists to manage sick patients - many would consider him to be the 'father' of intensive care. Here, we discuss the events surrounding the 1952 polio epidemic, the subsequent development of ICUs throughout the UK, the changes that have occurred in intensive care over the past 10 years and what the future holds for the specialty.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Royal United Hospital, Bath, UK fiona.kelly@doctors.org.uk.
authors.forename: Fiona E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, University College London Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurocritical Care, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hirsch
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Royal United Hospital, Bath.
authors.forename: Jerry P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Nolan
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends; D003718:Denmark; D005544:Forecasting; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D011051:Poliomyelitis / Q000266:history; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Intensive care; polio; tracheostomy; ventilation
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