The usefulness of routine intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for mitral valve (MV) surgery was studied in 65 patients (pts) with MV disease (mean age = 31 ± 14.8 to 62 yrs): 1 - Mitral regurgitation (MR): 19 pts-MV prolapse in 12 pts; Ischemic in 6 pts and post repair of ASD: 1 pt; 2 - Mitral stenosis (MS): 23 pts (4 of them with previous surgery); 3 - MS+MR and/or tricuspid valve (TV) lesions: 16 pts; 4 - Bioprosthetic valve (BV) dysfunction: 6 pts and 5 - Left atrial myxoma: 1 pt. Initial precardiopulmonary bypass TEE was used to confirm MV dysfunction, TV involvement and to assess LV function. On the 1 st run bypass (RBP), the MV commissurotomy was performed in 27 pts (23 with MS and 4 with MS+MR); the MV was replaced with BV (pericardial #21 to #29) in 18 pts (6 with BV dysfunction and 12 with MS+MR) and the MV repair was performed in all of 19 pts with MR). The 2nd RBP was required in 7 pts (11%): 1 pt with MR; 4 pts with MS+MR and 2 pts with MS. TEE caused changes in pre pump plans in 9 pts with TV lesions and in 10 pts with MS or MS+MR - preservation of native in 6 pts in which replacement was planned. Thus intraoperative TEE provides helpful information in MV surgery and can help avoid a mitral replacement in pts with MS or MS+MR.
transesofageal echocardiography in surgery; mitral valve