[Perforation of the pulmonary artery during the insertion of a Swan-Ganz catheter].

An accidental rupture of the pulmonary artery in a 77 year old female patient is reported. She was admitted for total mastectomy, but her past medical history revealed an old myocardial infarct, treated arterial hypertension and asthma. She was under heparin as well for her varicose veins. Her clinical examination revealed a patient in mild chronic heart failure. It was therefore decided to carry out invasive monitoring during surgery and the recovery period. A Swan-Ganz catheter was put up. Its progression was controlled by looking at the pressure curves. Several attempts were made to obtain a wedge pressure, with no success. During these attempts, the patient developed a cough followed by massive haemoptysis. Despite adequate resuscitative measures, the patient died before a surgical procedure could be attempted. Postmortem examination showed the rupture to be 9 cm away from the origin of the pulmonary artery. This unfortunate accident confirmed that the following three factors, all present in this patient, should call for extreme care in the setting-up of Swan-Ganz catheters: age greater than 60 years, pulmonary arterial hypertension and anticoagulant therapy.