(Circulation. 2009;119:147-152.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.
Historical Perspectives in Cardiology |
From the Chatterjee Center for Cardiac Research, University of California, San Francisco.
Correspondence to Dr Kanu Chatterjee, Division of Cardiology, 1182 M, Mofitt-Long Hospital, 505 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143. E-mail chatterj{at}medicine.ucsf.edu
| Abstract |
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Key Words: catheters devices hemodynamics history Swan-Ganz catheterization
| Introduction |
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| Evolution of Pulmonary Artery Catheters |
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| Clinical Use and Abuse of Balloon Flotation Catheters |
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| Acute Myocardial Infarction |
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The bedside hemodynamic studies in the Myocardial Infarction Research Unit reported a number of new and clinically relevant observations. The optimal level of left heart filling pressures by determining pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (14 to 18 mm Hg) in acute myocardial infarction was defined.12 The response to various therapeutic interventions was also reported. It was reported that furosemide, a commonly used loop diuretic for treatment of pulmonary congestion, may decrease pulmonary capillary wedge and right atrial pressures even before the onset of diuresis.13 It was also observed that "digitalis," another commonly used pharmacological agent for treatment of heart failure, can produce deleterious effects in patients with acute myocardial infarction.14 The observation that the vasodilator sodium nitroprusside produces marked beneficial hemodynamic effects in severe mitral regurgitation also resulted from studies with the use of balloon flotation catheters.15
Hemodynamic indices were developed to assess the prognosis of patients with acute myocardial infarction. A markedly decreased cardiac output, left ventricular stroke work, and elevated pulmonary capillary wedge pressure indicating impaired left ventricular systolic function were shown to be adverse hemodynamic predictors.10,16 However, it had already been reported that clinical and radiological findings are as effective as hemodynamics to assess the prognosis of acute myocardial infarction.17
It should be appreciated that bedside hemodynamic studies were performed before reliable echocardiography and Doppler echocardiography were available. Furthermore, transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, including Doppler echocardiography, can be performed presently at the bedside in critically ill patients. Therefore, the diagnosis of complications of acute myocardial infarction, including the pathogenesis of cardiogenic shock, can be made by echocardiography, and bedside catheterization is not necessary. However, although the complications of acute coronary syndromes can be diagnosed by echocardiography, determination of hemodynamics by balloon flotation catheters is still necessary to assess the severity of the hemodynamic abnormalities and to formulate appropriate therapy, particularly in patients with cardiogenic shock.
The treatments of acute myocardial infarction have dramatically changed in recent years, and presently the essential therapy is reperfusion of ischemic myocardium. Thus, treatments based on hemodynamic subsets are not usually necessary, and the routine use of balloon flotation catheters may be associated with the increased risk of morbidity and mortality reported in several recent studies. In 1987, Gore et al18 reported that the use of pulmonary artery catheters was associated with a significantly higher in-hospital mortality in patients with congestive heart failure, hypotension, or both in combination complicating acute myocardial infarction. However, this study used "propensity analysis" and was not a prospective randomized trial. Even in the era of reperfusion therapy, it appears that the use of pulmonary artery catheterization is associated with an increased risk of mortality. The post hoc analysis of the data from the Global Utilization of Streptokinase and Tissue Plasminogen Activator for Occluded Coronary Arteries (GUSTO) IIb and GUSTO III trials reported that the hazard ratio for the risk of 30-day mortality with pulmonary artery catheterization in patients without cardiogenic shock was increased almost 5-fold.19 Although proper randomized trials are lacking in acute coronary syndromes, routine pulmonary artery catheterization is not indicated in patients with acute myocardial infarction. It should be emphasized, however, that in patients with cardiogenic shock due to left ventricular or right ventricular myocardial infarction after reperfusion therapy, the use of balloon flotation catheters to determine the hemodynamic response to supportive therapy is still necessary and strongly recommended.
| Non–Acute Coronary Syndrome High-Risk Patients |
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Because of the ease of catheter placement at the bedside and of the potential benefits, pulmonary artery catheterization with the use of balloon flotation catheters became almost a routine monitoring technique during cardiac and noncardiac surgery and for the treatment of adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, and even severe chronic heart failure.
However, the routine use of balloon flotation catheters, sometimes even without appropriate indications, resulted in inevitable adverse complications, including death. It is not surprising that various derogatory remarks appeared in the literature such as the following article titles: "Death by Pulmonary Artery Flow-Directed Catheter: Time for a Moratorium?"20; "Is It Time to Pull the Pulmonary Artery Catheter?"21; "The Pulmonary Artery Catheter: Friend, Foe or Accomplice"22; and "Recently Published Papers: Dying Swans and Other Stories."23
Although it was initially thought that randomized clinical trials are not appropriate and may not be feasible, some investigators recommended that "prospective studies to define the clinical value of pulmonary artery catheterization are needed, but must be designed very carefully in order to identify unequivocally the effect of pulmonary artery catheterization on outcome in critically ill patients."24
After several years, however, randomized clinical trials were performed in non–acute coronary syndromes, which uniformly documented that routine bedside pulmonary artery catheterization is not only not beneficial but may be associated with increased morbidity and mortality.
A randomized clinical trial in the high-risk patients in intensive care reported no clear evidence of benefit or harm by managing critically ill patients with pulmonary artery catheterization.25 Another randomized trial with high-risk surgical patients showed no mortality benefit but an increase in complications such as incidence of pulmonary embolism.26 Many other studies have reported similar results.27,28
One of the common indications for bedside hemodynamic monitoring with the use of balloon flotation catheters in the high-risk noncardiac surgical patients has been to optimize oxygen delivery and consumption with adequate volume and inotropic support.29 However, aggressive inotropic therapy may be associated with inappropriate increase in myocardial oxygen consumption, increased arrhythmias, and adverse outcome that is not due to use of Swan-Ganz catheters but due to inappropriate therapy. Prospective clinical trials, however, failed to demonstrate any better outcome with maximizing oxygen consumption by hemodynamic monitoring.30 Another frequent indication for pulmonary artery catheterization in the intensive care units has been for the management of patients with ARDS. It has been postulated that monitoring both right and left ventricular filling pressures (right atrial and pulmonary capillary wedge pressures) and cardiac output will facilitate the maintenance of volume status and regulation of vasopressor and inotropic therapy. It has also been suggested that such hemodynamic monitoring with the use of balloon flotation catheters is superior to the use of central venous catheters to monitor central venous pressure alone and is likely to produce better outcome. Indeed, many nonrandomized clinical studies have recommended, for routine bedside hemodynamic monitoring, the use of balloon flotation catheters for management of ARDS.31
However, a large National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute–sponsored randomized clinical trial has reported that pulmonary artery catheterization is not associated with a better outcome compared with central venous catheterization in patients with ARDS. In both pulmonary artery catheterization–guided and central venous catheterization–guided groups, the numbers of patients with shock and on vasopressors were similar.32 The mortality and the number of days in the intensive care units in the 2 groups were not different. However, the complications with pulmonary artery catheterization were higher. It was concluded that "PAC [pulmonary artery catheterization]-guided therapy did not improve survival or organ perfusion and complications were higher than CVC [central venous catheterization]-guided therapy." It appears, therefore, that routine pulmonary artery catheterization should not be practiced for management of patients with ARDS.
In another large National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute–sponsored randomized clinical trial, aggressive fluid resuscitation in patients with acute lung injury with hemodynamic monitoring and the use of balloon flotation catheters were associated with deleterious outcome.33 In this study, aggressive fluid resuscitation appears to be the cause of adverse outcome, not the use of Swan-Ganz catheters.
One of the major criticisms of these studies is that it was forgotten that Swan-Ganz catheters are diagnostic and not therapeutic tools. Another problem is that prolonged catheterization was frequently performed in patients with no known reversible therapy. Furthermore, the misinterpretation of the hemodynamic data obtained frequently led to inappropriate therapy.
| Severe Chronic Heart Failure |
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In patients with severe chronic heart failure it is often necessary to use intravenous diuretic, inotropic, and vasoactive drugs. It has been suggested that assessment of response to such therapy is facilitated by bedside hemodynamic monitoring. The proposed hemodynamic-tailored therapy was also reported to decrease hospital readmission rates.36 Clinical subsets based on hemodynamics were introduced as in patients with acute myocardial infarction.37 The hemodynamic goals for heart failure–tailored therapy, based on retrospective studies, were proposed.38 These hemodynamic goals were widely accepted by the heart failure specialists, and in most institutions patients with severe chronic heart failure underwent bedside pulmonary artery catheterization with the use of balloon flotation catheters.
However, to assess the necessity and effectiveness of pulmonary artery catheterization in the management of severe chronic heart failure, a prospective randomized trial was performed.39 The primary end point of this study was to detect the differences in mortality and number of days in the hospital, which were not different between patients who received pulmonary artery catheterization–guided therapy and whose treatment was based on clinical assessment alone. The conclusion was that the addition of pulmonary artery catheterization to careful clinical assessments did not affect overall mortality and hospitalization.40
The results of these randomized clinical trials have established that routine bedside pulmonary artery catheterization is not indicated even in high-risk acute coronary syndrome and non–acute coronary syndrome patients. It is seldom necessary for diagnosis or to assess prognosis and response to therapy. For the management of critically ill patients, use of pulmonary artery catheterization does not increase overall mortality or days in the hospital, nor does it confer benefit.40 It can be associated with serious adverse complications, including death, particularly if it is not used properly.
The potential life-threatening complications such as pneumothorax, hemothorax, pulmonary artery perforation, and inadvertent insertion of the catheter into the carotid artery, causing bleeding and even stroke, should not occur if proper precautions are taken and the procedure is done after some training.
One of the authors fellows in training did not recognize that the balloon flotation catheter was in the right common carotid artery, and each time the balloon was inflated, the patient had a transient ischemic attack. The problem, however, was recognized promptly and corrected. Another potentially fatal complication is pulmonary artery perforation, which also can be avoided if recommended techniques are followed.41
It should be appreciated, however, that only because of the invention of balloon flotation catheters and their introduction for bedside hemodynamic monitoring has our knowledge of hemodynamic correlates of clinical, echocardiographic, and other noninvasive investigations been possible. It should also be realized that pulmonary artery catheterization is a diagnostic rather than a therapeutic tool. To avoid complications, some experience is necessary. Furthermore, some knowledge is mandatory for the proper interpretation of hemodynamic data. The fact that pulmonary artery catheterization with the use of balloon flotation catheters can be performed easily does not mean that it should be performed without a proper indication.
| Are There Any Residual Indications for Pulmonary Artery Catheterization? |
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Pulmonary artery catheterization is necessary for the hemodynamic differential diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension.42 For example, presently no noninvasive tests are available for the accurate diagnosis of precapillary, postcapillary and mixed hemodynamic types of pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Determination of hemodynamics is often necessary in patients with heart failure complicated by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or other comorbid conditions. In patients with severe diastolic or systolic heart failure, with or without cardiogenic shock, unexplained hemodynamic abnormalities can be uncovered, such as low systemic vascular resistance despite hypotension and low cardiac output, as in cardiac amyloidosis. Similarly, in chronic systolic heart failure, "pseudosepsis syndrome" due to excessive vasodilatation therapy can be diagnosed. It is important to recognize these uncommon causes or complications of heart failure because treatments are different and complicated and cannot be achieved without hemodynamic monitoring with the use of balloon flotation catheters. Treatment of potentially reversible systolic heart failure, such as fulminant myocarditis or peripartum cardiomyopathy, is facilitated with the use of Swan-Ganz catheters. In patients with discordant right and left ventricular failure, monitoring of central venous pressure alone is likely to produce underestimation or overestimation of the severity of right or left ventricular failure. In these patients, determination of both right and left ventricular filling pressures with the use of Swan-Ganz catheters is useful.
During workup for heart, lung, and heart and lung transplantation, bedside hemodynamic monitoring with the use of balloon flotation catheters is routinely employed. In many institutions, pulmonary artery catheterization is performed to exclude portopulmonary hypertension before liver transplantation is undertaken. It should not be forgotten that without balloon flotation catheters in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, proper training in hemodynamics would not have been possible for a large number of trainees. The potential current indications for the use of Swan-Ganz catheters are summarized in the Table.
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| Conclusion |
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In patients with severe chronic heart failure requiring inotropic, vasopressor, and vasodilator therapy, hemodynamic monitoring is essential. For heart and lung transplantation workup, hemodynamic monitoring is always necessary. In many institutions, hemodynamic studies are conducted before liver transplantation.
| Acknowledgments |
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Disclosures
None.
| References |
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