Anesthetic experience of using the intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography in endovascular stent graft placement of descending thoracic aortic aneurysm: A case report

ABSTRACT

Endovascular stent graft placement is a minimally invasive technique that can be applied to treat many diseases of the descending thoracic aorta. For accurate stent graft placement, clear identification of aortic lesion is important and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is an ideal imaging tool for descending thoracic aortic aneurysms. Also TEE is able to detect a perigraft leak that cannot be confirmed by angiography. Unlike angiography, TEE image acquisition capability is not dependent on nephrotoxic contrast dye. The analysis of perioperative cardiac function provided by TEE may be helpful in the perioperative anesthetic management. Furthermore, the tip of the transesophageal echocardiographic probe can be used as a marker to guide stent graft positioning. We report a case of endovascular stent graft placement using TEE in a patient with descending thoracic aortic aneurysm under general anesthesia.