Very low-quality observational evidence suggests pulmonary artery catheterization (PAC) use in patients with cardiogenic shock is associated with lower mortality.

Overall, these results support consideration of PAC for hemodynamic assessment in cardiogenic shock.

Prospective randomized clinical trials are needed to further characterize the role of PAC in this population.

We identified 19 eligible observational studies (≥ 2,716,287 patients) and no randomized controlled trials; 14 studies were at high risk of bias (lack of adjustment for prognostic variables and/or co-interventions).

When pooling adjusted results, PAC was associated with improved survival to hospital discharge and at longest available follow-up.

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