PURPOSE Evaluation of the role of transesophageal echocardiography in percutaneous closure of atrial septal defects (ASD) with the Amplatzer septal occluder. METHODS Patients were selected for percutaneous closure of ASD by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), which was also used to monitor the procedure, helping to select the appropriate size of the Amplatzer device, to verify its positio...

I would like the opportunity provided by the article “Changes in Surgical Conduct Due to the Intraoperative Transesophageal Echocardiography” – Sílvio AA et al. 1 – published recently by Revista Brasileira de Anestesiologia to stimulate the discussion regarding the real involvement of the Anesthesiologist in the use of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography in our country. Countries su...

Cortriatriatum is a rare congenital cardiac disorder with fibromuscular band (diaphragm) dividing the left atrium (LA) into the proximal and distal parts. Surgical correction of cortriatriatum requires full preoperative evaluation of the structural anomalies including the LA diaphragm and their pathophysiology. In the present case, a 44 year-old lady diagnosed as cortriatriatum underwent surgic...

In the United States alone, about 250,000 people develop significant mitral regurgitation (MR) each year, with almost 50,000 undergoing surgery. Surgical repair of a diseased mitral valve has become the treatment of choice for patients with significant MR. Since there is no single therapeutic approach for every etiology of MR, surgical mitral valve repair includes a variety of techniques that a...

We report the case of a patient with septal hypertrophic cardiomyopathy undergoing surgical correction in which the use of intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography permitted the planning of the surgical approach and an immediate knowledge of the surgical outcome.

BACKGROUND Sinus of Valsalva-right ventricle fistula is a recognized but very rare complication after surgical repair of subaortic ventricular septal defect. Surgical repair with cardiopulmonary bypass and percutaneous transcatheter closure guided by x-ray has been the traditional treatment for fistula of sinus of Valsalva. CASE PRESENTATION Recently, we have used a novel approach, that avoid...

outflow obstruction, is rare, and the presence of 2 myxomas originating in the right ventricle involving both right ventricular inflow and outflow tract has never been reported. Symptoms may be variable and are determined by the tumor location and size. Inflow or outflow obstruction, embolism, syncopal episodes, and arrhythmias are the most common. After the diagnosis of acute right ventricular...

Heart valve replacement is a common cardiac surgical procedure used to treat native valvular diseases such as aortic and mitral stenosis and regurgitation. These procedures reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with diseased native valves and yet come at the expense of prosthetic valve complications. Structural valve degeneration is one such complication. We present a case of a critical...

We present a case of posterior ventricular septal rupture associated to left ventricular aneurysm manged, during peri-operative period, by transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography. Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography findings add adjunctive and more accurate information regarding morphological details of the ventricular septal rupture rather than two-dimensional echocar...

MitraClip therapy consists of percutaneous edge-to-edge coaptation of the mitral leaflets that is analogous to the surgical Alfieri technique. The safety profile of the MitraClip device is favourable, and survival outcomes in high-surgical-risk patients are superior to historical controls. However, questions remain regarding long-term efficacy and durability. In the U.S.A., the MitraClip device...