Pro/con clinical debate: pulmonary artery catheters increase the morbidity and mortality of intensive care unit patients

One of the highlights of the intensive care unit when I was a resident was the opportunity to place a pulmonary artery catheter and then spend the rest of the day calculating parameters such as oxygen delivery, oxygen consumption, intrapulmonary shunt fraction, and so on. I have noticed in the past few years that the use of these devices in our unit is much less frequent. In our case I am not absolutely certain of the reason for this. Perhaps with time our clinical sense has improved to the point that we do not need the data available, perhaps other tests have replaced the pulmonary artery catheter’s role or perhaps we are worried about the possible morbidity/mortality associated with its use. In the present article, we revisit this important debate.