Pulmonary artery catheters are widely used in intensive care, but evidence
to support their widespread use is sparse. Some published data suggest that
greater mortality is associated with use of these catheters. The largest s
tudy to date looked at >5500 patients in several centres in America and fou
nd a greater 30 day mortality in those patients receiving a pulmonary arter
y catheter. We tested the hypothesis that, on our intensive care unit, mort
ality was greater for those patients receiving a pulmonary artery catheter.
Using a propensity score to account for severity of illness, the odds rati
o for mortality in those patients receiving a pulmonary artery catheter was
1.08 (95% confidence interval 0.87-1.33). We believe that continued use of
the pulmonary artery catheter is safe; a large randomized controlled trial
examining outcome is unlikely to provide an adequate answer.