Is Pulmonary Artery Catheter Placement in the Setting of Right Atrial Tumor Thrombus Worth the Risk?

Abstract

inadvertently may have unmasked the patient allocation to both anesthetic and nursing staff. We wonder if the use of a blinding questionnaire would have detected this. We also question who is best placed to insert the paravertebral catheter. Although the technique may be associated with fewer side effects than the gold standard thoracic epidural and the remaining risks can be minimized by the use of ultrasound guidance, pleural placement still can take place, as reported in 12% of patients in this study. In our unit, we have now moved to surgical placement under direct vision, which may be both more effective and time efficient. 5 References 1 Dutta V, Kumar B, Jayant A, et al. Effect of continuous paravertebral dexmedetomidine administration on intraoperative anesthetic drug requirement and post-thoracotomy pain syndrome after thoracotomy: A randomized controlled trial.