• Emmanuelle Begot, Marc Clavel, Alessandro Piccardo, Rémi Bellier, Bruno François, Nicolas Pichon, and Philippe Vignon.
• Medical-surgical intensive care unit, Dupuytren University Hospital, 2 Ave. Martin Luther King, 87042, Limoges, France. emmanuellebegot@yahoo.fr.
• BMC Med Imaging. 2015 Aug 14; 15: 31.

BackgroundHemodynamic monitoring is frequently needed in ventilated patients with unstable hemodynamics after open-heart surgery. Novel miniaturized single-use transesophageal echocardiographic probe has been scarcely used in this clinical setting.Case PresentationA patient who underwent a scheduled open-heart surgery developed a ventilator-associated pneumonia and was referred to the intensive care unit for post-operative acute respiratory distress syndrome. Hemodynamic monitoring was performed with a single-use indwelling transesophageal echocardiography probe during 50 h. Initially, a contrast study depicted a patent foramen ovale with a right-to-left shunt. Nitric oxide was administered and positive end-expiration pressure was reduced. Subsequently, the patient became hemodynamically unstable and the identification of a localized tamponade due to compressive left atrial hematoma prompted reoperation.ConclusionsThe novel hemodynamic monitoring device described here appears valuable to help identifying severe post-operative complications and guide acute care.

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