The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 51, 451-454, Copyright © 1991 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Hemodynamic effects of lobar pulmonary artery occlusion in a porcine sepsis model
ME Ward, H Shennib and A Zidulka
Montreal General Hospital, Quebec, Canada.
We induced severe pulmonary hypertension and acute lung injury in 6 pigs by
Pseudomonas aeruginosa infusion. We studied the effect of pulmonary artery
catheter inflation of a pulmonary artery catheter balloon in the left lower
lobar pulmonary artery was accompanied by a significant (p less than 0.05,
paired t test) increase in pulmonary artery pressure, a decrease in left
atrial pressure, a decrease in cardiac output, and a decrease in mean
arterial pressure. No significant changes occurred when the catheter was
advanced into the wedged position without balloon inflation. Balloon
inflation had no significant effect on these variables before bacterial
infusion. We conclude that with sufficiently severe pulmonary hypertension
in association with diffuse lung injury, lobar pulmonary artery occlusion
may cause alterations in cardiac output and left atrial pressure. This may
confuse interpretation of pulmonary artery catheter measurements.