Chest
Volume 92, Issue 4, October 1987, Pages 727-731
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Clinical Dialogue
Death by Pulmonary Artery Flow-Directed Catheter (editorial): Time for a Moratorium?

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WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?

The least desirable alternative would be to do nothing. If, indeed, large numbers of patients are being harmed, then we are dealing with an emergency.

What probably will occur is that the controversy concerning the use of the catheter will intensify. This is not an acceptable alternative because if catheter supporters are wrong, this alternative will only serve to perpetuate the use of catheters and harm masses of patients. If critics of the catheter are wrong, then the use of a test which, at

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    Citation Excerpt :

    Improvements based on these findings came slowly, and the SGC was nearly banned in the late 1980s. The anti-SGC sentiment was compellingly expressed in E.D. Robin's editorial in 1987 [11], but with additional experience, it became clear that the SGC had strong support because of the many lives saved by its usefulness in management of complex cardiopulmonary situations (see 2009 comprehensive review by K. Chatterjee [2]). This trend has continued, and the current attitude seems to be that the SGPAR incidence now is low enough to tolerate given the positive aspects of SGC usage (personal communication, Alex Duarte, M.D.).

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