Critical Care Medicine

The Department of Critical Care at DMC&H is a recognized tertiary care referral center serving most parts of Northern India. It is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic services and aims to provide quality health care, teaching, and training by qualified and experienced doctors in a safe and comfortable environment.

The department provides critical care services to critically ill medical, surgical, trauma, neurosurgical, pulmonary, stroke, and transplant patients housed on one floor, spread over 36,000 sq ft, located on the 4th floor of the hospital building with more than 100 ICU beds. The department also provides resuscitation services in the emergency, burn ICU, and wards as Rapid Response Team and Critical Care Outreach. All beds are equipped with multichannel physiological monitoring systems, allowing close monitoring of patients both from the bedside and the central nursing station. We are equipped with advanced, sophisticated ventilators with the latest ventilatory modes and respiratory mechanics analysis facilities. We also have bedside invasive and non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring. We have equipment such as video laryngoscopes and devices for the management of difficult airways, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, ultrasonography, echocardiography, and renal replacement therapy (HD and CRRT), which are readily available in the ICU and are used routinely for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Lung, abdominal, and vascular ultrasound, as well as echocardiography for the assessment of hemodynamics and volume status of critically ill patients, are available at the point-of-care. The use of ultrasound for procedure guidance reduces complications and increases patient safety. Our ICU is one of the first centers in India to perform the maximum number of Percutaneous Tracheostomies (PCT).

Evolution of the Department:

The intensive care unit at Dayanand Medical College started with 6 beds in the late 90s, supervised by the Department of Chest, headed by Professor and Head, Dr. J. Wig. The intensive care unit witnessed rapid growth, and independent units for medical, surgical, neurosurgery, stroke, trauma, chest, and pediatric units were established in 2004. The critical team of qualified and experienced doctors from the fields of anaesthesia, medicine, surgery, and pulmonology was appointed to provide round-the-clock care to critically sick patients admitted to these ICUs in 2006. The unit matured to attain an independent identity as the Critical Care Division under Dr. Parshotam Lal Gautam in 2009. The ICU was recognized as a center for IDCCM Fellowship under ISCCM in 2010. The Department of Critical Care Medicine was established in July 2014 with Dr. Parshotam Lal Gautam as Professor and Head. It was under his leadership that the department was permitted to start the super-specialty course of DM in Critical Care Medicine with 2 candidates per year from 2019 onwards.

Academic & Research

The department was permitted by MCI to start the super-specialty course of DM in Critical Care Medicine with 2 candidates per year from 2019 onwards. Departmental faculty is actively involved in research and has delivered lectures at national and international conferences. The department has published 4 chapters, 1 review article, and 10 original articles in the last year. There are presently five research projects being carried out by the department faculty.

Conferences Organized by the Department

• “International Anaesthesia and Critical Care Review 2008” jointly with faculty from Mayo Clinics, Rochester, US, November 2008. This conference was attended by more than 800 delegates. Thirty international faculty members from Mayo Clinics participated actively. This conference was preceded by a pre-conference workshop on ultrasound-guided procedures and vascular access.
• CME on ‘Role of TEE in Perioperative Care’ in March 2010.
• FCCS Course on 20th-21st March 2010.
• “International Anaesthesia and Critical Care Review 2010” jointly with faculty from Mayo Clinics, Rochester, US, in September 2010.
• “Certificate Course in Nutrition” in March 2011 at DMC&H, Ludhiana.
• “Liver Transplant Symposium” jointly with faculty from Mayo Clinics, Rochester, US, in February 2014.
• FCCS Course certified by SCCM, USA, December 2014.
• “Innovations and Quality Improvement in Medicine” in January 2015.
• VTE-CON @ DMC&H on venous thromboembolism in April 2016.
• CME on Patient-Physician Relationship on 9th December 2018 at DMC&H, Ludhiana.

Services

• Advanced airway management
• Percutaneous tracheostomy
• Hemodynamic monitoring, including minimally invasive CO monitoring techniques
• Invasive vascular procedures - Central venous line placement, arterial line placement, invasive pulmonary artery catheterization, dialysis catheterization
• Ultrasonography, including lung USG, e-FAST, echocardiography, and hemodynamic assessment
• Renal replacement therapy - Peritoneal dialysis, SLED, CRRT
• Bronchoscopy for BAL, pulmonary toileting
• Lumbar puncture and ICP monitoring
• Abdominal paracentesis
• Thoracentesis
• ICD tube placement
• Thromboelastography
• Nutritional planning