Invasive Monitoring in the Intensive Care Unit

The purpose of monitoring of the patient in an intensive care unit (ICU) is to improve patient care, like bringing about a change in the treatment or transfer of the patient to a step-down unit. Monitoring also shows the extent of compliance with a formulated standard of care or the degree of deviation from the expected standard of care. The monitoring used for a patient admitted to an ICU can be invasive or noninvasive. Invasive monitoring in an ICU includes arterial blood pressure, transesophageal Doppler, central venous pressure (CVP) measurement, pulmonary artery catheterization, arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis and measurement of intracranial pressure (ICP) and intra-abdominal pressure (IAP). Monitoring of the physiologic parameters depends on the underlying illness of the patient and the availability of equipment in the ICU.