The Pulmonary Artery Catheter, 1967–2007

Abstract
In this issue of JAMA, an investigation using a nationally representative administrative database reported a marked decline in the use of pulmonary artery (PA) catheters from 5.66 per 1000 medical admissions in 1993 to 1.99 per 1000 medical admissions in 2004.1 These significant declines in PA catheter utilization were most prominent for patients with myocardial infarction (81% decrease), but also were significant for surgical patients (63% decrease) and for patients with septicemia (54% decrease).