Prognostic implications of pulmonary artery catheter monitoring in patients with cardiogenic shock: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Purpose: To investigate the impact of pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) monitoring on survival of cardiogenic shock(CS), in the light of the controversies in available evidence. Materials and methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane library and Web of Science were systematically screened to identify most relevant studies on patients with CS comparing PAC use to non-use during hospital stay. Short-term mortality was the primary endpoint and the use of Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) devices was the secondary one. Results: Six observational studies including 1,166,762 patients were selected. The most frequent etiology of CS was post-myocardial infarction (75% [95% CI 55–89%] in PAC-group and 81%[95% CI 47–95%] in non-PAC group). Overall, PAC was used in 33%(95% CI 24–44%) of cases. Pooling data adjusted for confounders, a significant association between the PAC-group and a reduction in short-term mortality emerged when compared to the non-PAC group (36%[95% CI 27–45%] vs 47%[95% CI 35–59%];AdjustedOR 0.71, 95% CI 0.59–0.87, p < 0.01). MCS use was significantly higher in PAC vs non-PAC group (59% [95% CI 54–65%]) vs 48% [95% CI 43–53%]);OR 1.60 [95% CI 1.27–2.02, p < 0.01]). Conclusions: PAC was associated with lower incidence of short-term mortality in CS pooling adjusted observational studies. Prospective studies are needed to confirm our hypothesis and better clarify the mechanisms of this potential prognostic benefit.