Pulmonary Artery Catheter, Cardiac Output and Indices of Fluid Balance

For two decades, interest in measuring cardiac output and pulmonary pressures in non-cardiac anaesthesia has been gradually replaced by interest in methods to assist goal-directed fluid therapy. Previous reliance on tracking central venous pressure (CVP) or pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) is now regarded as unreliable or unnecessarily invasive and has been replaced by less invasive methods. Two technologies dominate in this respect: ultrasound and pulse contour analysis. Nevertheless, pulmonary artery (PA) catheter and thermodilution techniques will be covered in some detail because they are still used extensively in cardiac anaesthesia, they are the gold standard in validating new technologies and the subject remains an exam staple.