Which catheter is used in a right heart catheterization?

Which catheter is used in a right heart catheterization?

• A. Swan-Ganz catheter
• B. Pigtail catheter
• C. Flow-directed catheter
• D. Endomyocardial biopsy catheter

Answer: (A)

In right heart catheterization, a balloon-tipped, flow-directed catheter is threaded through a central vein into the right heart and then into a branch of the pulmonary artery to measure pressures and obtain wedge pressures. This is exactly what the Swan-Ganz catheter is designed to do: it floats with the blood flow, can be advanced into the pulmonary artery, and its balloon can be inflated to wedge, providing a surrogate for left atrial pressure while also allowing measurement of right atrial, right ventricular, and pulmonary artery pressures and mixed venous oxygen saturation. Other catheters have different primary uses—pigtail catheters are mainly for imaging, endomyocardial biopsy catheters obtain tissue samples—whereas the term flow-directed describes the catheter's working principle, but the standard device used for this purpose in practice is the Swan-Ganz catheter.

In right heart catheterization, a balloon-tipped, flow-directed catheter is threaded through a central vein into the right heart and then into a branch of the pulmonary artery to measure pressures and obtain wedge pressures. This is exactly what the Swan-Ganz catheter is designed to do: it floats with the blood flow, can be advanced into the pulmonary artery, and its balloon can be inflated to wedge, providing a surrogate for left atrial pressure while also allowing measurement of right atrial, right ventricular, and pulmonary artery pressures and mixed venous oxygen saturation. Other catheters have different primary uses—pigtail catheters are mainly for imaging, endomyocardial biopsy catheters obtain tissue samples—whereas the term flow-directed describes the catheter's working principle, but the standard device used for this purpose in practice is the Swan-Ganz catheter.