Does Transesophageal Echocardiography Along With an Orogastric Tube Improve the Image Quality Intraoperatively?

Does Transesophageal Echocardiography Along With an Orogastric Tube Improve the Image Quality Intraoperatively?

Image quality of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) tends to get worse during long hours of operations. An orogastric tube (OGT) is often inserted in the beginning of the case, and left there for intermittent suction as needed, or removed before TEE exam to prevent echoic artifacts. However, if left there, the effect of suction might be limited due to unreliable tip position of the OG tube. If removed, stomach will be distended again. We devised the OG tube attached TEE for practical suction and assessed its effect on image quality intraoperatively.

OGT attached TEE probe is used for cardiac and liver transplantation cases. Each case is assigned 3 investigators who are blinded to this study design, We do image quality assessment by two methods; firstly, we categorize image quality as numbers based on each investigator's impression (1: Very bad, 2: bad, 3: acceptable, 4: good, 5: very good) and compare the difference in number before and after suctioning. Secondly, we evaluate consistency intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for inter-observer variability using investigator A, B and C. We evaluate absolute-agreement ICC for intra-observer variability using investigator C, who perform analysis for all images twice with a 6 to 8 months interval. This analysis was performed with left ventricular fraction area change using transgastric left ventricular short axis view.

Inclusion Criteria:

• adult cardiac surgery or liver transplant surgery

Exclusion Criteria:

• TEE with significant wall motion abnormality or TEE contraindicated patients