Pulmonary artery flow-directed catheter use in the obstetric patient

Pulmonary artery flow-directed (Swan-Ganz) catheters permit continuous central hemodynamic monitoring of unstable patients. They provide important information about left ventricular function, because left ventricular end-diastolic pressure is reflected by measurement of the pulmonary capillary wedge pressure. Furthermore, thermodilution-tip models permit rapid determination of cardiac output. This report presents 3 different types of problems in obstetric patients in whom management was greatly facilitated by the use of Swan-Ganz catheters.