title: Pulmonary artery catheter monitoring in 2011.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hemodynamic monitoring has gained widespread acceptance in intensive care units. Despite ongoing debate regarding its safety and efficacy, monitoring with the pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) remains used for the management of severe heart failure and shock.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To reanalyze using the most recently published literature in the field, the role of the PAC to manage critically ill patients with right ventricular failure, pulmonary hypertension and weaning failure from cardiac origin. The role of PAC as a gold standard to validate new cardiac output monitoring devices was also reported.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite competition with less invasive hemodynamic monitoring devices or ultrasonic methods, the PAC remains a useful monitoring device in situations in which the knowledge of pulmonary artery pressure, pulmonary artery occlusion pressure and oxygenation parameters are needed. The proper use of PAC requires, however, a perfect knowledge of the numerous pitfalls and difficulties in interpretation of its measurements.
authors.affiliation: AP-HP, Service de réanimation médicale, Hôpital de Bicêtre and Faculté de médecine Paris-Sud, Univ Paris-Sud, EA 4046, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, Paris, France. christian.richard@bct.aphp.fr
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Monnet
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Teboul
mesh_terms: D002407:Catheterization, Swan-Ganz / Q000592:standards*; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods*; D011651:Pulmonary Artery