Increasing use of less-invasive hemodynamic monitoring in 3 specialty surgical intensive care units: a 5-year experience at a tertiary medical center.

Introduction: Less-invasive hemodynamic monitoring (eg, esophageal doppler monitoring [EDM] and arterial pressure contour analysis, FloTrac) is increasingly used as an alternative to pulmonary artery catheters (PACs) in critically ill intensive care unit (ICU).

Hypothesis: The decrease in use of PACs is not associated with increased mortality.

Methods: Five-year retrospective review of 1894 hemodynamically monitored patients admitted to 3 surgical ICUs in a university-affiliate, tertiary care urban hospital.