Perioperative optimization and right heart catheterization: what technique in which patient?

Daniel De Backer¹ , Jacques Creteur² and Jean-Louis Vincent³

¹Staff Physician, Department of Intensive Care, Erasme University Hospital, University of Brussels, Belgium

²Staff Physician, Department of Intensive Care, Erasme University Hospital, University of Brussels, Belgium

³Head, Department of Intensive Care, Erasme University Hospital, University of Brussels, Belgium

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Critical Care 2003, 7:201-202doi:10.1186/cc2177


Published:	14 March 2003

Abstract

Recent years have seen the place of the pulmonary artery catheter in intensive care increasingly challenged, with one recent study reporting no difference in outcome in patients treated with or without a pulmonary artery catheter. However, this study has several methodological flaws and, although pulmonary artery catheterization should not be performed routinely on all patients, when used correctly by trained personnel in selected patients the pulmonary artery catheter continues to provide valuable information.