In 1970, Jeremy Swan, William Ganz, and colleagues published their seminal paper “Catheterization of the heart in man with use of flow-directed balloon-tipped catheter”. Few devices in our specialty have generated more interest or passion as the pulmonary artery catheter (PAC).

At its core, the PAC measures right-sided cardiac pressures, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, cardiac output, and mixed venous oxygen saturation.

Given the ability to guide therapy in near real-time to subtle perturbations in physiology, the PAC became synonymous with critical care medicine.

Clinicians have believed that using the PAC to “correct” abnormal physiology results in better clinical outcomes.

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