Korean J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg.  1997 Dec;30(12):1205-1213.

The Usefulness of Transesophageal Echocardiography During Heart Surgery

• Cho KD
• Kim CK

Abstract

This study reviewed useful aspects of the intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography among the patients in whom heart surgery were undertaken between January 1996 and July 1996 at St.Pauls hospital, Medical College of Catholic University, Seoul, Korea. During that period, 61 patients were operated on because of valvular heart disease(25 patients), coronary artery disease(22 patients), congenital heart disease(13 patients), and combined coronary artery disease and valvular heart disease(1 patient). Two patients(1 redo-VSD and 1 valvular heart diease) needed repeated aortic cross clamping and complementary procedures because of incomplete initial procedures. There was no incidence of air embolism. We could observe significant relationship of cardiac output monitoring methods either by thermodilution technique and transesophageal echocardiography by linear regression analysis(p<0.001). We tested myocardial response(percentage of systolic wall thickness, PSWT) with low dose dobutamine challenge to predict post-CABG myocardial perfusion. And the test showed statistically significant response(sensitivity 76%, specificity 94.7%, positive predictive value 95%, negative predictive value 75%). These results suggest that cardiac surgeon could draw more benefits by intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography.

Keyword

Echocardiography; Heart Surgery; Coronary artery bypass

MeSH Terms

Cardiac Output
Constriction
Coronary Artery Bypass
Coronary Artery Disease
Coronary Vessels
Dobutamine
Echocardiography
Echocardiography, Transesophageal*
Embolism, Air
Heart*
Humans
Incidence
Korea
Linear Models
Perfusion
Sensitivity and Specificity
Seoul
Thermodilution
Thoracic Surgery*
Dobutamine