Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : official publication of the American Society of Echocardiography
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J Am Soc Echocardiogr · May 1998
Case ReportsAcquired ventricular septal defect and mitral insufficiency without pericardial effusion after stab wound to the chest.
Echocardiography has a role in the management of acute complications of penetrating cardiac trauma. We report the case of a 30-year-old man who sustained a stab wound to the chest. ⋯ The diagnosis was made by transthoracic echocardiography. The ability of transesophageal echocardiography to delineate the intracardiac injuries more precisely helped to guide the surgical procedure.
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J Am Soc Echocardiogr · May 1998
Case ReportsTransesophageal echocardiography in a case of cardiac compression: was it therapeutic?
Cardiac compression is a potentially life-threatening complication of heart surgery. This syndrome often has atypical manifestations, challenging our ability to make a rapid diagnosis and to institute emergent, life-saving treatment. We recently evaluated one such patient who showed cardiac compression caused by an unusual paracardiac mass. The addition of transesophageal echocardiography to the usual transthoracic study may have played more than just a diagnostic role in this case.