The Swann
Posted by GruntDoc on 14th November 2009
Dr. Ganz has died at 90.
William Ganz, Catheter Inventor, Dies at 90
Dr. William Ganz, a cardiologist and medical inventor who helped develop a revolutionary catheter to measure blood flow and heart functions, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 90. …
The catheter, which is used more than one million times a year in the United States, is known as the Swan-Ganz because Dr. Ganz created it with Dr. Jeremy Swan at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. It is inserted through a vein in the neck, shoulder or groin and fed into the right side of the heart. A balloon at the device’s tip allows it to be carried along by blood flow.
I was fortunate enough to get a chance to ‘float a Swan’ a few times as a resident, and never since. Are they still used?
I recall doing a lot of longhand math after a Swan, and a terrific amount of information could be discerned…and then it was kind of a big pain to decide when it was no longer needed.
Thanks, Dr. Ganz, and, are they still in frequent ICU use?
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