Swan-Ganz Catheter-Induced Severe Complications in Cardiac Surgery: Right Ventricular Perforation, Knotting, and Rupture of a Pulmonary Artery

Abstract

The incidence of serious Swan-Ganz catheter complications in our patient population is comparable to the incidence reported in the literature. Based on these results the use of Swan-Ganz catheters in cardiac surgery is still justified since the rate of associated serious complications is extremely low. Despite the rare occurrence of serious complications and the infrequent fatal outcomes, the benefit of its use in selected cases of cardiac surgery overweight its associated complications.