pulmonary_wedge_pressure [Neurosurgery Wiki]

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.

The pulmonary wedge pressure or PWP, or cross-sectional pressure (also called the pulmonary arterial wedge pressure or PAWP, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure or PCWP, or pulmonary artery occlusion pressure or PAOP), is the pressure measured by wedging a pulmonary catheter with an inflated balloon into a small pulmonary arterial branch. It estimates the left atrial pressure.

[Pulmonary venous wedge pressure (PVWP) is not synonymous with the above; PVWP has been shown to correlate with pulmonary artery pressures in studies, albeit unreliably].

Physiologically, distinctions can be drawn among pulmonary artery pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, pulmonary venous pressure and left atrial pressure, but not all of these can be measured in a clinical context.

Noninvasive estimation techniques have been proposed.