Pulmonary artery catheter complications

Complications related to pulmonary artery catheter insertion, maintenance, and removal include damage to vessels and organs during insertion, arrhythmias, infections, and thromboembolic damage. To avoid the complications associated with pulmonary artery catheterization, other less invasive tools were developed to obtain similar information. For example, cardiac output determinations have been made by Doppler, bioimpedance, dye, and ionic dilution techniques, although such measurements would not provide other data that are obtained routinely with pulmonary artery catheters (e.g., left-sided heart-filling pressure). Additionally, advances in... 

Initial studies of continuous intravenous prostacyclin infusion in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension have shown sustained improvement in pulmonary artery pressure, exercise capacity, and survival compared with historical controls (31,32). Minor complications (diarrhea, jaw pain, flushing, photosensitivity, and headache) were dose-related. Serious complications were related to problems with the drug delivery system, including catheter thrombosis, sepsis, and temporary interruption of the infusion, resulting in abrupt deterioration (31). 

Many complications are reported particularly with alcohol embolization, such as pulmonary embolus, cardiovascular collapse, neuropathy, skin blisters, radiculopathy, finger numbness, and focal skin necrosis [23, 24]. Arterial line monitoring and Swan-Ganz catheters are recommended for large AVM embolization [24] (Figs. 23.6a-d, 23.7a-d). 

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