Abstract
Objectives: Monitoring the continuous cardiac output (CCO) with a retained pulmonary artery catheter is valuable for the postoperative management of cardiac surgery patients. Intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) is also useful for preventing deep venous thrombosis in such patients. We experienced a novel case of a patient with rhythmic continuous cardiac index (CCI) fluctuations during IPC. We conducted the present study to determine whether the oscillations were caused by the IPC and whether the degree of oscillations differed between different IPC devices. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of cardiac patients in the ICU. We measured the amplitudes and frequencies of CCI oscillations in each patient. First, we compared the CCI oscillations with IPC to those without it. Second, we compared the oscillations between patients using two different types of IPC devices. Results: CCI oscillations were observed in all patients, but they disappeared when IPC was not used. Furthermore, the amplitudes and frequencies of the CCI oscillations differed significantly between IPC devices. Conclusion: The CCI oscillations disappeared when IPC was stopped and differed between different IPC devices.
