title: A prospective analysis of 1,400 pulmonary artery catheterizations in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
abstract: During 1983 and 1984, 1305 patients underwent 1,400 pulmonary artery (PA) catheterizations. Successful placement was achieved in 1397 (99.6%) of 1,403 attempts. The catheters were inserted via the right internal jugular vein on 1364 occasions. The median duration of monitoring was 28 h with a range from 3 to 220 h. Central venous puncture complications included carotid artery puncture in 67 instances (4.8%) and pneumothorax in one patient. Insertion of the catheters was associated with supraventricular arrhythmias on 11 occasions, ventricular arrhythmias on 930 (66.4%), right bundle branch block on two and a total heart block on one occasion. Eighteen (2.3%) of the 794 cultured catheter tips were positive. An in situ time of more than 72 h was associated with a significantly higher percentage (7.2%) of positive tip cultures compared with an in situ time of less than 72 h (P less than 0.01). Repeated PA catheterization was not associated with significantly more complications than the initial catheterization. The results show that monitoring with a PA catheter in cardiac surgical patients is associated with a low incidence of morbidity.
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000209:etiology; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000401:mortality; D020212:Carotid Artery Injuries; D002404:Catheterization / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D011030:Pneumothorax / Q000209:etiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011651:Pulmonary Artery; D014950:Wounds, Penetrating / Q000209:etiology*