Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
Swan–Ganz catheter Pronunciation:
'swän-'ganz- Function:
noun : a soft catheter with an expandable balloon tip that is used formeasuring blood pressure in the pulmonary artery
Swan,
Harold James Charles (b 1922), and
Ganz,
William (b 1919), Americancardiologists. From the 1960s Swan served as director of cardiology at a Los Angeles medical center and as professor of medicine at the University of California. In 1970 he introduced a catheter withan expandable balloon tip for use in measuring blood pressure in the pulmonary artery. Swan was greatly assisted in the development of the balloon catheter by Ganz. Together Swan and Ganz alsodeveloped a multipurpose catheter that incorporates a number of electrodes in its shaft.
