Early in 1986 professor Chen Haohui established one of the first surgical intensive care unit (SICU) in mainland China with a group of surgeons and nurses.In July 1991 SICU was moved from the surgical ward to a new building. The independent department of critical care medicine was formally established. At the end of 2005 the department was moved to the present new building of surgical departments and is the only ICU with single room for each patient in mainland China .The rooms are separately ventilated and maintained at a higher or lower pressure for reduction of air-borne cross-infection and equipped the most advanced monitor and ventilators

Through the efforts made by physicians and nurses of many generations the department has become one of important centers of critical care medicine devoted to medical treatment, teaching and scientific research in mainland China. The department started with 4 beds. Now the number of beds was increased to twenty. In the early stage of the department about 200 patients were admited and treated every year. In 2007 more than 800 critically ill patients were treated, ensuring the successful treatment of the critically in patients in our hospital.

On the staff there are 4 specially invited consultants, 4 full associate professors, 5 attending intensivists of doctorate degree and 10 of master’s degree, 1 deputy chief nurse, 2 attending nurses and 53 well-trained registered nurses.

The department is one of the best equipped ICU in Beijing region and equipped with most advanced equipment including : Philips bedside monitors; Dragger Evita XL, Siemens Servo and Purtall-Bennett 840 ventilator; PiCCO hemodynamic monitor, Aquarius bedside blood filtration machine; Jimbo AK200 renal dialyzer, automatic expectoration machine and CHIS system.

Professor Chen a well known surgeon pays great attention to clinical treatment and always takes care of the patients in person, resuscitated successfully many dying patients and accumulated rich experience in patient management. The mortality of acute severe pancreatitis was reduced to 10~20%. Early in 1990’s last century, he started using pressure-limited mechanical ventilation in the treatment of acute respiration distress syndrome (ARDS) .Except those suffering from incurable primary diseases, statistics showed that no patients died of ventilator-related lung r pneumonia before the end of last century in our department. He also set the target blood glucose concentration below 120~130 ūg/dl in patient with severe diabetes mellitus. The mortality of the critically ill patients has been significantly lower in our department than those reported by paper published in domestics and international journals.

Of late years under the leadership of Pro .Zhu Xi ,tutor of graduate student, the staff team of different levels was perfected, frequent international academic exchanges were carried out, the recent advances in critical care medicine abroad were early followed and new projects were started including: bedsides continuous high-lower veno- venous blood filtration; early and advanced goal-directed treatment of shock (EGDT,AGDT); re-expansion of the lungs in ARDS; adrenal cortical nor moue replacement therapy in patient under stress; bronchi-alveolar larvae(BAL); transcutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy; ultra-cranial pressure monitoring and moderate hypothermia in patients with cerebral injury and comprehensive treatment of abdominal septum syndrome. Considerable experious in the post operation treatment and care of the patient after orthotropic liver transplantation (OLT),combined pancreas-kidney transplantation, high cereal spinal cord injury was accumulated .The results of treatment of shock ,ARDS and multiple organ failure have reached top level in mainland China .The mortality of patient of APACHEⅡ was lower than the predicted value. The annual average total mortality was<5%.The mortality of patients with septic shock was <10%.The mortality of patients with acute sever pancreatitis has been 0 for 4 years. A fewer patient with 6~7 organ failure were saved .The achievements received ablution and praise from the society of critical care medicine .