Major Complications Related to the Use of Transesophageal Echocardiography in Cardiac Surgery

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of injury associated with transesophageal echocardiography (TEE injuries) in cardiac surgery. DESIGN: Retrospective. SETTING: University-affiliated hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Four thousand seven hundred eighty-four patients, 89% of all public hospital cardiac surgery patients in Victoria, from the Australasian Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ASCTS) database undergoing cardiac surgery with TEE between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2007. Because ASCTS did not record TEE use before July 2005, it was assumed that 89% of an additional 11,719 cardiac surgery patients between July 2001 and June 2005 also had TEE. INTERVENTIONS..