Louisville, Kentucky is home to 31 practicing critical care medicine doctors who have offices in 2 counties and 8 zip codes, including zip codes 40202, 40207, 40258, 40241, 40217, 40215, 40292, and 40205.

Kentucky is known for its thoroughbred horses, tobacco and bourbon, but there’s much more. The Kentucky parks system draw thousands of visitors each year for swimming, boating, hiking, biking, and picnicking. The capital city is Frankfort, and has many historic homes and sites to visit, including the Old Governor’s Mansion, the Capital City Museum, and the Liberty Hall Historic Site. Visitors can explore a cave in Mammoth Cave National Park, or when in Louisville, hear authentic bluegrass music. Famous people born in Kentucky are former president Abraham Lincoln, fighter Muhammad Ali, and actor Johnny Depp.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Kentucky has a population of 4,173,405. Of this population, 959,891 are under the age of 18 and 522,811 are at or above the age of 65.

Description

Critical care medicine deals with life support or organ support for patients who are critically ill. A critical care physician diagnoses, treats, and supports patients who may be in an intensive care unit, or who may have multiple organ dysfunction. Patients who receive intensive care treatment are usually critically ill patients who are treated after major surgery and require intensive monitoring. The critical care or intensive care physician may also communicate with the patient’s primary physician, other specialists, and the critical care staff to coordinate treatment and care.

Diseases / Illnesses Treated

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are trauma, cystic fibrosis, renal failure, liver failure, post-operative care, serious infections, acute lung injury, hemodynamic instability, hypoxic injury, reversible heart & lung dysfunction, multi-organ dysfunction, airway & respiratory compromise, cardiopulmonary failure, and circulatory failure.

Procedures Performed

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including endotracheal tube, mechanical ventilation, tracheotomy, ecmo (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), establishing central venous access, adial arterial catheterization, and passage of pulmonary arterial balloon flotation catheters.

Tests Performed

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including  magnetic resonance imaging (mri), computed axial tomography (ct or cat scan), blood test, and pulmonary function tests (pfts).