Dynamic monitoring of fat emboli on transesophageal echocardiogram during total knee arthroplasty / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To detect fat emboli in cardiac chamber of the patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty(TKA) by transesophageal echocardiography(TEE), and to discuss the relevant clinical value.Methods Eleven female patients with 12 osteoarthritis(OA) knees were underwent TKA. According to whether using tourniquet or not,12 knees were divided into 2 groups at randomtourniquet-related group (6 knees) and control group(6 knees). Echo intensity and ultrasonic characteristics of fat emboli in cardiac chamber were studied dynamically by multiplane TEE in various periods of the whole operation. Results All of the patients were implanted knee prostheses successfully. In different periods of TKA, fat emboli appeared as isoechoic or hyperechoic particles, which were found in right atrium, but nothing could be found in left heart. The imaging of the particles was flowing with duration time of 10～600s, like dots, lines, "moving star" or "shower". While femur expanding(0～3mins),the particles in right atrium and ventricle became more and more, and the echo intensity became significantly higher than those in other periods. After releasing tourniquet(0～5mins),most particles with highest echo intensity were observed in right heart,showing like "snowstorm" in tourniquet-related group, and more emboli were still detected at the end of monitoring (10 min after releasing tourniquet) by TEE,compared to the control group. No patient suffered from fat embolism syndrome(FES) with clinical manifestation. Conclusions Fat emboli in cardiac chamber can be observed sensitively by real-time TEE dynamically during TKA. It should be encouraged and promoted to analyze ultrasonic characteristics to facilitate the early detection, early diagnosis and early clinical intervention for the subclinical type of FES.