Why the study?
Do coronary care units offer a consistent benefit over more conservative treatment for acute myocardial infarction?
Do coronary care units offer a consistent benefit over more conservative treatment for acute myocardial infarction?
This review highlights that the uncritical acceptance and proliferation of coronary care units for acute myocardial infarction may not be supported by consistent evidence of benefit over conservative care.
Questions routine CCU use for AMI; leaves open whether intensive care improves outcomes over conservative care.
This article presents a review of the development of coronary care units (CCUs) as a paradigm for the uncritical acceptance of technology in medical services. Studies comparing CCU with other settings for treatment of acute myocardial infarction are described in which intensive care is not shown to offer a consistent benefit over more conservative treatment. The proliferation of CCUs as it relates to corporate involvement in medical research (as argued by Waitzkin) is presented. Finally, methodologies now being applied to improve patient selection for CCU services are summarized.
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David Siegel (1987) studied this question.
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