This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (29)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Intervention With Therapeutic Embolism of the Pulmonary Artery

Thomas A. Carlson, MD; Irvin F. Goldenberg, MD; Philip D. Murray, MD; S. Murthy Tadavarthy, MD; Michael Walker; Fredarick L. Gobel, MD

JAMA. 1989;261(13):1943-1945.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION of the flow-directed, balloon-tipped catheter by Swan et al¹ in 1970 has facilitated bedside hemodynamic monitoring in the critically ill patient. Although this catheter usually allows safe measurement of important hemodynamic variables, it is not without morbidity.^2,3

Pulmonary artery hemorrhage is a relatively rare but often catastrophic complication of pulmonary artery catheterization. The literature reports an incidence of 0.06% to 0.2%,^4,5 with a mortality ranging from 45% to 65%.^6-8 Survivors, on rare occasion, exhibit delayed hemorrhage after stabilization from the initial bleeding episode. Only five cases of delayed recurrent pulmonary artery hemorrhage have been reported,^8-12 with a delay of 33 hours to 7 months. Three of these patients survived; two required thoracotomy,^9,12 and the other received therapeutic embolism to a false aneurysm of the pulmonary artery.¹⁰ Presented are three additional patients who suffered recurrent delayed pulmonary hemorrhage secondary to balloon-tipped catheters, one . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Minneapolis (Minn) Heart Institute.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Minneapolis Heart Institute, 920 E 28th St, Suite 160, Minneapolis, MN 55407 (Dr Goldenberg).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?