Central venous pressure and pulmonary wedge pressure. A comparative study in anesthetized surgical patients
K. Samii, C. Conseiller and P. Viars
To determine the reliability of central venous pressure (CVP) as a guide to
fluid therapy during an operation, repeated and simultaneous CVP and
pulmonary wedge pressure (PWP) measurements were made with a Swan-Ganz
catheter in 13 relatively elderly patients without obvious cardiac or
respiratory disease- Overall correlation between CVP and PWP was highly
significant (P less than .001); there was, however, an important variation
of the correlation for each patient. For values of CVP greater than or
equal to 8 mm Hg, the correlation was not significant. The disparity
between right and left ventricular filling pressures was confirmed by the
relationship between serial changes in CVP and PWP. These data strongly
suggest that in relatively elderly patients undergoing surgery without
evidence of cardiac or respiratory disease, CVP may be misleading index for
appreciating PWP.
