Doctors and nurses in the 2100/Medical Intensive Care Unit at The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital participated recently in a study that is having a major impact nationally on how patients with acute lung injuries are monitored.

Patrick Wright, MD, Medical Director, Piedmont Respiratory Research Foundation, and Chair, Pulmonary Critical Care Division, LeBauer HealthCare, was the principle investigator locally on the study published in the May 25, 2006, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.  He was assisted by Cindy Carter-Cole, RN, Clinical Nurse Specialist; Jeanette McLean, RN, Research Nurse; and other nursing staff at Moses Cone Hospital, one of 20 North American medical centers involved in the research.

In the study, doctors monitored patients with acute lung injuries and tested pulmonary-artery catheters versus central venous catheters.  They found similar outcomes with both.  That finding has prompted changes in clinical practice at Moses Cone Health System and hospitals across the country.  Because central venous catheters are less expensive, less invasive and shorten the patient's length of stay in intensive care, most doctors nationwide are opting now to use that type of catheter, except in special cases, Wright says.