• Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim · Jun 2005

    Case Reports

    [Intracoronary air embolism detected during intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography].

    • M C Cabrera Schulmeyer, E Santelices Cuevas, R Vega Sepúlveda, F Allamand, and J C De la Maza.
    • Departamento de Anestesiología. Hospital Clinico Fuerza Aérea de Chile. carol218@utr.net
    • Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim. 2005 Jun 1; 52 (6): 367-70.

    AbstractA 39-year-old hypertensive man with severe aortic stenosis underwent aortic valve replacement monitored by intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography. Upon weaning the patient off extracorporeal circulation, hemodynamics became severely compromised, with hypotension, tachycardia, and elevated precordial electrocardiographic tracings. The echocardiographic images were instrumental during the episode to demonstrate that the anterior wall presented hypokinesis consistent with ischemia in the region but that there were also images of hyperrefringence highly suggestive of intracoronary air embolism. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography allowed us to diagnose the real cause of the ischemic event and rule out an atheromatous plaque as the source. Perfusion pressure was increased to treat the air embolism. The echocardiographic image demonstrated success, specifically restoration of left ventricular regional contractility. This experience revealed the usefulness of transesophageal echocardiography in intraoperative monitoring to diagnose ischemia, assess the cause, and guide treatment.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…