[HSF] Pulmonary Artery Catheters !

[prasannasimha]

I agree - as it is said  its not the catheter that's important but what 
is between the two ears.
Prasanna

Michael Firstenberg wrote:
> All of the time.
>
> Most of the data suggests that it is the doctors that dont know how to 
> use,
> nothing wrong with the catheters or the data.
>
>
> -michael
>
>
> On 11/3/06, Nasser F. Abou'Seada <nfaabouseada at gmail.com> 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.
>>
>>
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