A CORONARY-CARE UNIT IN THE ROUTINE MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION
The design, equipment and staffing of the-six-bedded coronary-care unit at the Royal-Infirmary, Edinburgh are described. As a result of the-admission and discharge policy which is outlined, 624-patients were admitted to the unit from April, 1966, to-May 1967. 570 of these were emergency “routine”-admissions and 400 had sustained an acute myocardial-infarction. Theses 400 cases are presented in detail. There-were 70 deaths (55 in the unit, 15 in the wards after-transfer), and a high proportion were due to causes such-as shock, asystole and severe cardiac failure, which at-present are mostly irremediable.