Cardiothoracic & vascular anesthesia
Practice Pattern Variability in the Use of Pulmonary Arterial Catheters in Cardiac Surgery
Authors' conclusion
Intraoperative PAC monitoring is used in nearly three-quarters of cardiac surgeries at US academic centers, with hospital practice pattern the factor most closely associated with PAC utilization.
Study context
- Population
- Adults undergoing cardiac surgery at 53 US academic hospitals in the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group (MPOG) national registry, 2016–2022
- Participants
- 145,343 adults · 53 hospitals
- Outcome
- PAC utilization
Methodological detailsobservational, generalized logistic mixed models, multicentre registry (MPOG)
- Observational
- Generalized logistic mixed models
- Multicentre registry (MPOG)
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Intraoperative PAC use
- Cardiac surgeries with pulmonary arterial catheter (PAC) monitoring
- 104,626 (72%)
- PAC use across hospitals
- 0-98%
- PAC use across anesthesiologists
- 0-100%
- Variation attributable to hospital
- Median odds ratio (MOR) 15.00 (95% CI 8.98-28.32)
- Variation attributable to anesthesiologist within the same hospital
- MOR 1.70 (95% CI 1.61-1.81)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
PAC use by procedure type
- Heart transplants
- 94%
- Lung transplants
- 87%
- Pulmonic valve procedures
- 30%
Original publication
Practice Pattern Variability in the Use of Pulmonary Arterial Catheters in Cardiac Surgery. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. Published 13 August 2025. doi:10.
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