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Gerald W. Peskin, MD

Arch Surg. 2004;139:709-711.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

After consultation with members of the editorial board, following are the 10 best clinical articles of 2003. During the year, many innovative and informative publications appeared in surgical and medical journals. Our selections appear in random order. We hope that this list will prove helpful to you in staying abreast of significant practice-related ideas. Each article is preceded by a comment regarding the reason it was chosen.

Some observational studies have suggested that the use of pulmonary-artery catheters to guide therapy is associated with increased mortality. This is particularly true, so the reasoning goes, in high-risk surgical patients requiring an intensive care setting. The following report of almost 2000 patients helps to establish the concept.

Sandham JD, Hull RD, Brant RF, et al.
A Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Use of Pulmonary-Artery Catheters in High-Risk Surgical Patients
N Engl J Med. 2003;348:5. . . [Full Text of this Article]

From the Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco–East Bay, Oakland.