A systematic approach to epicardial echocardiography in pediatric cardiac surgery: An important but underutilized intraoperative tool

• Published in: Annals of pediatric cardiology Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 192 - 200
• Main Authors: Awasthy, Neeraj, Girotra, Sumir, Dutta, Nilanjan, Azad, Sushil, Radhakrishnan, Sitaraman, Iyer, Krishna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Mumbai Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd 01.04.2021; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Wolters Kluwer - Medknow; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Subjects: Children; Echocardiography; epicardial echo; Health aspects; Heart diseases; How I Do It; Pediatric cardiology; Pediatrics; postoperative echo; residual defects; Surgery; transesophageal echocardiography; postoperative echo; transesophageal echocardiography; residual defects; Epicardial echo
• ISSN: 0974-2069; 0974-5149
• DOI: 10.4103/apc.APC_90_20

Intraoperative echocardiography is an integral component of the peri-operative management of pediatric heart disease. It confirms the adequacy of surgery, identifies residual lesions, and can provide useful hemodynamic data. It, therefore, helps to decide on the need for revision of repair and guides the postoperative management strategy. Intraoperative echocardiography is done with the use of either an epicardial probe or a transesophageal probe. Epicardial echocardiography is a simple, useful modality and has the ability to perform imaging in cases where transesophageal echocardiography cannot be easily performed, for example, in low birth weight babies. We attempt to describe in detail the technique of epicardial echocardiography and the various views that we have found useful for a complete postsurgical evaluation. The limitations of the technique are also discussed in detail.