Intensive care medicine and the intensivist: from 1850 to 2021

Abstract

Intensive Care Medicine gained prominence in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a recent medical specialty, which many physicians and the public know little about. This article makes a historical perspective, from the emergence of the first areas for observation of critically ill patients in the nineteenth century to the present, to the impact of the pandemic and its consequences.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Intensive care
• Critical care
• Historical