[HSF] Pulmonary Artery Catheters !

[prasannasimha]

I use them selectively.
I think what they are referring to is use in the medical ICU's rather 
than cardiac surgical ICU's.
There are now alternative methods like PICO etc which allow estimation 
of CO so the use of CCO is lesser than before.
Prasanna

Nasser F. Abou'Seada wrote:
> How frequently do members of the forum use PA Catheter ? 
> - Comments ??
>
> NFA
>
> HEART CATHETERS DO NOT BENEFIT PATIENTS 
>
> (Editorial: Pulmonary artery catheters)
> http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7575/930 
>
>
>
> Doctors should probably stop using pulmonary artery catheters because they
> do not benefit patients, say doctors from Australia in this week's BMJ. 
>
> The pulmonary artery catheter was invented in 1968. It enabled bedside
> monitoring in critically ill patients by measuring heart output and
> capillary pressure in the lungs and became widely used in intensive care
> units. 
>
> But reports of serious complications soon appeared and arguments for and
> against its use have continued ever since. 
>
> The most recent evaluation, commissioned by the NHS Health Technology
> Assessment (HTA) programme, found that pulmonary artery catheters do not
> benefit patients and concluded that withdrawing them from UK intensive care
> units would be cost effective. 
>
> Another recent trial in patients with acute lung injury confirmed these
> findings, while an analysis of 13 trials reported no overall effect of using
> these devices on mortality or length of hospital stay. 
>
> So what should clinicians do with all this information? 
>
> Given that the use of pulmonary artery catheters increases the risk of
> important complications, continued use of these devices is difficult to
> defend, say the authors. 
>
> The onus is now on the proponents of the pulmonary artery catheter and
> related devices to limit their use to clinical trials and to show that
> protocols based on such devices do benefit patients, they conclude.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenHeart-L mailing list
>
> Send postings to:
>  OpenHeart-L at lists.hsforum.com
>
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, to CHANGE email address, or to view archives:
> http://mmp.cjp.com/mailman/listinfo/openheart-l
>
> All messages transmitted by the OpenHeart-L are subject to the policies and 
> disclaimers posted at:
> http://www.hsforum.com/listdisclaim
> -----------------------------------------
>
>