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Article: Pulling the plug on a common medical procedure. (pulmonary artery catheterization)
- Article from:
- Medical Update
- Article date:
- December 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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More than 50 years ago, Dr. Lewis Dexter, professor of cardiology at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, performed the first pulmonary artery (PA) catheterization--inserting a tube into the right side of the heart to measure pressures and oxygen content. The radical new procedure made it possible to diagnose a wide variety of congenital heart lesions, including septal defects, tetralogy of Fallot, patent ductus, and pulmonic stenosis. This accurate diagnostic procedure led to surgical correction of these conditions and ushered in the era of modern cardiac surgery.
During the next 25 years, cardiac catheterization units became commonplace in hospitals, and the ...