Included In This Lesson
Outline
Nursing Points
General
- Pulmonary Artery Wedge Pressure (PAWP)
- AKA pulmonary capillary occlusion pressure (PCOP)
- Air into balloon -> to look at left side of heart
- Waves
- A (shows QRS) -> contraction of atria
- C (may no see, shows in A wave) -> mitral valve closes
- V (between T and P) -> atria fill
- Mean of A wave = the wedge (normal 4-12)
- Wedge should not be > PAD (pressure decreases as it moves through circulation)
- This means that reading is inaccurate
- Over wedged
- Catheter in wrong place
- Should be in zone 3 -> check X-ray
- Other ways to know…
- Wedge humps are more flat than usual or absent
- Wedge humps vary upon patient’s breathing
- This means that reading is inaccurate
- Wedge should not be > PAD (pressure decreases as it moves through circulation)
- PAWP is elevated with
- Left-sided heart dysfunction
- Mitral stenosis or insufficiency
- Cardiac tamponade
- Constrictive pericarditis
- Left ventricular failure
- Volume overload
