12.3.3 Pulmonary Artery Pressure Monitoring
Pulmonary artery (PA) catheters are useful tool in the diagnosis and treatment of infants and children with cardiopulmonary failure and pulmonary hypertension. PA catheters measure the direct pulmonary artery pressure. Laboratory studies, such as mixed venous oxy- gen saturations, may be obtained from these lines .These lines may be placed through a major blood vessel into the pulmonary artery or placed directly into the pulmonary artery at the time of cardiac surgery.