Key result
Pulmonary-artery catheters lack clear indications and therapeutic goals despite widespread use in critically ill patients.
Highlights the widespread use of pulmonary-artery catheters in critically ill patients despite unclear indications for their clinical use.
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Undefined indications support cautious pulmonary-artery catheter use in critical care; leaves open the need for trials defining protocols.
Pulmonary-artery catheters are widely used in critically ill patients both for diagnosis and to guide therapy. According to current estimates, there are more than 1.2 million pulmonary-artery catheters placed annually in the United States, with associated costs of over $2 billion.1 A layperson might assume that if a form of medical technology is so widely used, there must be clear-cut indications for its clinical use. Unfortunately, that would be an incorrect assumption. The indications for placement of a pulmonary-artery catheter, the interpretation of the data generated by the catheter, and the goals for therapy directed by it all remain to . . .
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Polly E. Parsons (2003) conducted an editorial in Critically ill patients. Pulmonary-artery catheters was evaluated. Despite the widespread use of pulmonary-artery catheters in critically ill patients, clear-cut indications for their clinical use, data interpretation, and therapeutic goals remain undefined.
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