ABSTRACT
Perioperative echocardiography is widely used in most cardiac surgery centers in North America, Europe, and around theworld and has become a standard of care for many patients. Intraoperative echocardiography (IOE) is used because it provides information that significantly influences clinical management and improves clinical outcome. Several recent series have documented the usefulness of IOE in adult cardiac surgery (see Chapter 13), the intensive care unit (ICU), and noncardiac surgery (see Chapter 30). The new information obtainedwith IOEwas examined and its impact on anesthetic or surgical management studied. In adult cardiac surgery, the incidence of new information ranged from 12.8% to 38.6%, while the impact on surgical management or medical treatment ranged from 2.2% to 14.6% (Table 31.1).
