Pro: The General Anesthesiologist Should Be Trained and Certified in Transesophageal Echocardiography

Sheldon Goldstein

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debatepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is the anesthesiologist's responsibility to ensure adequate tissue perfusion. In many patients, standard hemodynamic monitoring provides inadequate management guidance. TEE is an excellent hemodynamic diagnostic tool that can be used as a monitor to guide therapy. The phrase "hemodynamic instability" is a reflection of anesthesiologists' ignorance of the root causes of blood pressure gyrations. If the use of echocardiography increases, this term could be eradicated from the perioperative vocabulary and replaced by solid diagnostic descriptors. As the population ages and more survivors of technically and technologically complex treatments join the general surgical population, anesthesiologists will care for patients with increasingly complex cardiovascular disorders, sometimes on an emergent basis. Intraoperatively, these patients should be managed with TEE. Similarly, rapid access to TEE should be standard practice in hemodynamic emergencies. If anesthesiologists are truly to fulfill their oft-stated claim to be perioperative physicians, then the time for general anesthesiologists to learn TEE has arrived.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)183-188
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia
Volume24
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • anesthesiology
  • continuing education
  • geriatric assessment
  • heart arrest
  • intraoperative
  • kidney failure
  • monitoring
  • renal insufficiency
  • resuscitation
  • transesophageal echocardiography

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine

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