A randomized, controlled trial of the use of pulmonary-artery catheters in high-risk surgical patients.

Background: Some observational studies suggest that the use of pulmonary-artery catheters to guide therapy is associated with increased mortality.

Methods: We performed a randomized trial comparing goal-directed therapy guided by a pulmonary-artery catheter with standard care without the use of a pulmonary-artery catheter. The subjects were high-risk patients 60 years of age or older, with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class III or IV risk, who were scheduled for urgent or elective major surgery, followed by a stay in an intensive care unit.