British journal of anaesthesia
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Contralateral haemothorax developed as a late complication of subclavian vein cannulation following gradual erosion of the wall of the superior vena cava by the tip of the catheter. The use of a relatively rigid catheter and a left-sided approach may have contributed to this rare, but potentially fatal complication.
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The dynamic performance of arterial manometers depends upon the values of the natural frequency fo and the damping factor beta. Satisfactory reproduction of all arterial waveforms requires that fo should be greater than about 13 Hz; for an fo of 13 Hz, beta should have a value of 0.5, but, as fo increases, an increasing range of beta values is permissible. ⋯ We also investigated the performance of a commercial device, the Accudynamic, designed to allow beta to be increased without affecting fo. We found that the Accudynamic worked well, allowing acceptable performance to be obtained from the Gould Disposable transducer with catheters up to 200 cm in length.