Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center – Fort Worth now offers comprehensive care for patients with advanced heart failure, including left ventricular support devices and other mechanical circulatory support. The advanced heart failure team implanted its first LVAD in July.
Placement of a pulmonary artery catheter (PAC), commonly known as a Swan-Ganz catheter, provides hemodynamic data that is vital for clinicians treating patients with acute decompensated heart failure or cardiogenic shock. While routine use has been shown to not be beneficial, there are many instances in which hemodynamic monitoring through the use of a Swan is highly indicated.
Cardiogenic shock represents a dynamic set of conditions, presentation profiles and pathophysiologic mechanisms whose mortality has not changed in more than 20 years. While almost 75 percent is due to predominant left ventricular failure, a quarter is due to something else, such as a rupture or tamponade, right ventricle shock or acute severe mitral regurgitation.