The Effectiveness of Right Heart Catheterization in the Initial Care of Critically Ill Patients

Abstract

Comment: I cannot say more about this study (or say anything better) than what Ken Tuman and I wrote in a recent editorial.1 I believe this study adds nothing to the database we already had, and it accentuates the problem that we have with right heart catheterization which is: knowing when and where it is appropriate to perform right heart catheterization and treat the patient based on derived values. Clearly, we need a prospective, randomized, controlled study that is free of all the biases of observational studies (like this one) and cross-overs that the usual studies have (like many in the literature).