Use of Hepatic Vein Catheterization in the Evaluation of Patients with Anasarca

ABSTRACT In patients with anasarca, the relative importance of cardiac, pulmonary and/or hepatic dysfunction is often difficult to determine. Conventional use of the Swan-Ganz catheter helps to separate the contributions of right and left heart disease, but it is seldom used to evaluate liver dysfunction. This report describes passage of a Swan-Ganz catheter into the hepatic vein prior to pulmonary artery placement in 11 patients. Hepatic vein catheterization permitted wedged hepatic venography using contrast media and measurement of the wedged and free hepatic venous pressures. All 11 patients had pulmonary hypertension; three had cor pulmonale only, and the others had combinations of left and right heart failure. In addition, six patients had either a cirrhotic pattern on venography, or portal hypertension. Only three of these six patients had previous clinical evidence of liver disease. This study does not prove that identification of hepatic dysfunction by this method improves the outcome in such patients. However, this low risk modification of standard pulmonary artery catheterization provides additional information which is clinically useful in searching for and avoiding complications of cirrhosis, as well as offering a clearer understanding of pathophysiology in acute multisystem disease.