A Multi-Country Survey on the Availability of Intraoperative Use of Echocardiography for Noncardiac Surgery
(2024) Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia — Vol. 28, n° 3, p. 135-146 (2024)
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AMulti-CountrySurveyontheAvailabilityofIntraoperativeUseofEchocardiographyforNonCardiacSurgery.pdf
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- Authors
El Tahan, Mohamed M. 
Huang, Jiapeng
- Abstract
- BACKGROUND: This survey aimed to explore the availability and accessibility of echocardiography during noncardiac surgery worldwide. METHODS: An internet-based 45-item survey was sent, followed by reminders from August 30, 2021, to August 20, 2022. RESULTS: 1189 responses were received from 62 countries. Nearly seventy-one percent of respondents had intraoperatively used transesophageal or transthoracic echocardiography (TEE and TTE, respectively) for monitoring or examination. The unavailability of echocardiography machines (30.3%), lack of trained personnel (30.2%), and absence of clinical indications (22.6%) were the top 3 reasons for not using intraoperative echocardiography in noncardiac surgery. About 61.5% of participants had access to at least one echocardiography machine. About 41% had access to at least 1 TEE probe, and 62.2% had access to at least 1 TTE probe. Seventy-four percent of centers had a procedure to request intraoperative echocardiography if needed for noncardiac cases. Intraoperative echocardiography service was immediately available in 58% of centers. CONCLUSIONS: Echocardiography machines and skilled echocardiographers are still unavailable at many centers worldwide. National societies should aim to train a critical mass of certified TEE/TTE anesthesiologists and provide all anesthesiologists access to perioperative TEE/TTE machines in anesthesiology departments, considering the increasing number of older and sicker surgical patients scheduled for noncardiac surgery.
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Citations
El Tahan, M. M., Cheng, D. C., Szegedi, L., Mellin-Olsen, J., Zdravkovic, M., Lineburger, E. B., Filipescu, D., Tritapepe, L., Guarracino, F., Neto, C. N., Garcia, P. C., Ángel Rodenas Monteagudo, M., Granell, M. G., Guillén, R. V., Gaudard, P., Abdulmomen, A., Eldawlatly, A. A., Bubenek-Turconi, S.-I., Stoica, R., et al. (2024). A Multi-Country Survey on the Availability of Intraoperative Use of Echocardiography for Noncardiac Surgery. Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia, 28(3), 135-146. https://doi.org/10.1177/10892532241256020 (Original work published 2024)