Interactive cardiovascular and thoracic surgery
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Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg · May 2011
Case ReportsThree-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography: diagnosing intraoperative pulmonary artery thrombus.
A 61-year-old patient with the diagnosis of acute heart failure based on severe mitral valve insufficiency due to chordae rupture was scheduled for surgery. Intraoperatively, a standard two-dimensional transesophageal echocardiogram (2D-TEE) examination, revealed severe mitral valve regurgitation due to a prolaps with chordal rupture and an echo dense structure in the pulmonary artery (PA). ⋯ On the basis of the clear demonstration on 3D-TEE of an at least 6-cm thrombus in the PA we decided to remove the thrombus prior to proceeding with the mitral valve repair. We conclude that 3D-TEE can alter surgical management and provide more valuable information on PA thrombus than that obtained by 2D-TEE.