Seldinger Technique Based Pulmonary Artery Catheterization: A Procedure to Insert Pulmonary Artery Catheter Through the Jugular Vein in a Porcine Model

After anesthetization, use a 17-gauge sterile venous catheter to puncture the skin. Guide the needle to intravascular positioning with the help of the ultrasound. Use the Seldinger technique to replace the needle with a guidewire. Remove the venous catheter, and leave only the guidewire in the intravascular lumen.

To ease the insertion of the sheath, make a small skin incision adherent to the guidewire. Then, place an appropriately sized sheath over the guidewire, and into the vessel of choice using the Seldinger technique.

Insert the Swan-Ganz catheter in the right jugular vein, through the 8-French sheath. Use fluoroscopy to observe when the distal part of the Swan-Ganz catheter is out of the sheath by resistance-free inflation of the balloon.

Slowly advance the Swan-Ganz catheter. Observe the changes in the pressure signal from the distal port as it enters the right ventricle and shortly after the distal port passes through the pulmonary artery.

Deflate the balloon and ensure that the distal pressure port is still in the main pulmonary artery using fluoroscopy and the pressure signal.