In Japan, institutions with pure Coronary Care Units (CCU) are rare. The co-called “CCU” treats acute coronary syndromes as well as heart failure, arrhythmias, myocarditis, acute aortic dissection, and acute pulmonary thromboembolism as target diseases. Therefore, the CCU in Japan focuses on the management of coronary artery disease, but the cardiologists must provide intensive care for patients with complicated and diversified severe cardiovascular conditions. In addition, the patients admitted to CCU are elderly and have diverse clinical conditions, requiring systemic management. In other words, cardiologists now require knowledge about the diagnosis and intensive treatment of a broad range of conditions occurring in post-cardiac arrest patients, including respiratory care, hemodialysis, infusion fluids, nutritional management, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), and delirium.
In the future, because cardiologists will also have to treat patients with a broad range of complex and diversified severe cardiovascular diseases using mechanical support, close cooperation with clinical technicians and nurses as well as with catheterization specialists, cardiovascular surgeons, intensive care specialists, and emergency room physicians is essential. For cardiologists working in CCU, the role as a cardiovascular intensive care specialist is expected to develop.
In this symposium, we will provide information on new topics in intensive care that should be known by specialists working in CCU, focusing on the current status and countermeasures. Treatment strategies for CCU patients will be broadly discussed. We hope for the active participation from institutions attempting to implement state-of-the art techniques for intensive care in CCU.