Hemodynamic measurements in clinical practice: a decade in review

Hemodynamic measurement is now an important and feasible adjunct to clinical practice. Its successful application to alleviate illness in human beings is evident in its contribution to an understanding of the pathophysiology of disease and the efficacy of various interventions to alter the course of a variety of diseases. Its application is widespread in the high risk patient undergoing surgery and the critically ill medically treated patient. Hemodynamic measurement permits accurate determination of the state and, if necessary, of the continuously changing function of the heart as related to disease process and guides treatment and interventions on a rational physiologic basis.