New Guideline Outlines Use of Transesophageal Echo to Assist Surgical Decision-making

June 4, 2020 — Intra-operative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is a versatile diagnostic and monitoring tool used to assist in patient management in a wide-range of cardiac surgical procedures. The new American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) document, "Guidelines for the Use of Transesophageal Echocardiography to Assist with Surgical Decision-Making in the Operating Room: A Surgery-Based Approach," outlines a systematic approach on how to apply the existing guidelines to address questions on cardiac structure and function specific to the intra-operative environment in open, minimally invasive, or hybrid procedures. 

This peer-reviewed guideline was developed in collaboration with the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and has also been endorsed by 18 ASE International Alliance Partners.

“The intraoperative echocardiographer should be an integral and active part of the heart team," explained chair of the ASE guideline writing group, Alina Nicoara, M.D., FASE, associate professor of anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center. "Utilizing a ‘catch-all’ protocol as a starting point for imaging in all procedures and all patients enables standardization of image acquisition, reduction in variability in quality of imaging and reporting, and ultimately, better patient care. Clear communication of the echocardiographic findings to the surgical team, as well as understanding the impact of new findings on the surgical plan, are paramount. Equally important is the need for an informed understanding of the technical steps of the surgical procedures being performed and the complications that may occur, in order to direct the post procedure evaluation toward aspects directly related to the surgical procedure and to provide pertinent echocardiographic information.”

In conjunction with the publication of this guideline, Nicoara and writing group co-chair Nikolaos Skubas, M.D., FASE, will conduct a live webinar, including a question and answer section, on July 9, 2020, at 5 p.m. Eastern time. The webinar will be available for free to all ASE members and open to all other clinicians for $25. Registration will open soon and access to all ASE-hosted guideline webinars is available on the ASE Learning Hub.

The full guideline document is available on the Journal of American Society of Echocardiography (JASE) website.  This document and all ASE guideline documents are also available to the medical community at ASEcho.org/Guidelines.

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Reference:

1. Alina Nicoara, Nikolaos Skubas, Niv Ad, et al. Guidelines for the Use of Transesophageal Echocardiography to Assist with SurgicalDecision-Making in the Operating Room: A Surgery-Based Approach. American Society of Echocardiography. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.echo.2020.03.002.