NICU - NICU

A special medical department in a hospital that provides intensive care and special treatment for low birth weight babies and newborns with congenital diseases. It is an abbreviation of neonatal intensive care unit. It is also called neonatal ICU. It treats premature babies and low birth weight babies (very low birth weight babies and very low birth weight babies), newborns with fetal dysfunction such as respiratory and circulatory failure (fetal distress, fetal distress), high-risk diseases such as congenital heart disease, and newborns with severe infections. The facilities include incubators for low birth weight babies, cardio-respiratory monitoring devices and artificial ventilation equipment for constant monitoring, and dedicated doctors, nurses, and medical staff provide treatment and care 24 hours a day.

In order to provide consistent medical care and management from the fetal period inside the mother's womb to the newborn period after birth, maternal-fetal intensive care units (MFICUs) that manage high-risk pregnancies (pregnancies that are expected to have a severely poor prognosis for either the mother or child, or both, as defined by the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology) and departments that manage newborns that have recovered from critical situations are often attached, and they function as the core department of perinatal maternal and child medical centers, covering the perinatal period (from 22 weeks of pregnancy to around the time of birth and less than 7 days after birth). Pediatric intensive care units for newborns and beyond are called PICUs.

[Editorial Department]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

低出生体重児や先天性疾患をもつ新生児などの集中治療や特殊治療を行う、病院の特殊診療部門。neonatal intensive care unit（新生児集中治療室）の略称。新生児ICUともよばれる。早産児や低出生体重児（超低出生体重児、極低出生体重児）、呼吸・循環不全など胎児機能不全（胎児仮死、胎児ジストレス）、先天性心疾患などのハイリスク疾患、重症感染症などを伴う新生児が対象となる。設備としては、低出生体重児用の保育器、常時モニターするための呼吸循環監視装置や人工換気装置などを備え、専属の医師や看護師および医療スタッフが、24時間体制で治療やケアにあたる。

　母体内の胎児期から出生後の新生児期まで一貫した医療と管理を行うために、ハイリスク妊娠（日本産婦人科学会の定義で、母児のいずれか、または両者に重大な予後不良が予想される妊娠）などを管理する母体・胎児集中治療管理室（MFICU：maternal-fetal intensive care unit）、危機的状況を脱した新生児を管理する部門なども併設され、周産期（妊娠22週から生後7日未満の出産前後）をカバーする、周産期母子医療センターの中核部門として機能していることが多い。なお、新生児以降の小児集中治療室はPICUとよばれる。

［編集部］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例