Less Invasive Hemodynamic Monitoring

A new minimally invasive hemodynamic monitoring device provides key continuous cardiac measurements by accessing data directly from an arterial line, avoiding the need for threading pulmonary artery catheters into a patient's heart. The device was previewed at the annual meeting of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) in Phoenix (AZ, USA) in January 2005.

Most critically ill or surgical patients in hospitals already have an arterial line in place to measure basic cardiovascular information and to draw blood, making the new sensor very easy to use. Called Flo Trac, the sensor was developed by Edwards Life Sciences Corp. (Irvine, CA, USA).

A preliminary study of 11 heart surgery patients conducted by Gerard R. Manecke, Jr., M.D., clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine's department of anesthesiology (USA; www.medicine.ucsd.edu), demonstrated that the Flo Trac sensor provided a reliable, minimally invasive method for measuring cardiac output, when compared with the Swan-Ganz catheter of Edwards. These results were reported at the SCCM meeting. The Swan-Ganz catheter is considered the gold standard by many doctors for conventional hemodynamic monitoring.

"We developed the Flo Trac technology to enable clinicians to assess hemodynamic parameters for a broader population of patients who could benefit from monitoring but who traditionally are not candidates for the more invasive existing technology,” explained Anita B. Bessler, corporate vice president, global franchise management, Edwards Life Sciences.





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