Emerging technologies.

Hemodynamic monitoring in critically ill patients has been considered part of the standard of care in managing patients with shock and/or acute lung injury, but outcome benefit, particularly in pediatric patients, has been questioned. There is difficulty in validating the reliability of monitoring devices, especially since this validation requires comparison to the pulmonary artery catheter, which has its own problems as a measurement tool. Interpretation of the available evidence reveals advantages and disadvantages of the available hemodynamic monitoring devices.