Pulmonary artery catheter placement under transoesophageal echocardiography guidance

Despite correct positioning pulmonary artery catheters may be displaced acc identally. Repositioning may prove to be difficult, especially when high pu lmonary artery pressures are present. After failure of usual placement meth ods, transoesophageal echocardiography was used to guide repositioning of a displaced Swan-Ganz catheter in the early postoperative course after cardi ac surgery in a child. This technique proved to be useful in visualizing in tracardiac catheter orientation and facilitating pulmonary artery catheter placement at bedside, avoiding transportation of a haemodynamically unstabl e patient.