THE USEFULNESS OF TRANSESOPHAGEAL ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY IN THE SURGICAL-MANAGEMENT OF OLDER CHILDREN WITH SUBAORTIC STENOSIS

Subaortic stenosis is a complex lesion that often presents in older ch ildren and adolescents. A clear depiction. of the Lesion is required f or optimization of surgery. Due to the large size of these patients, i s not always possible from surface echocardiography. Intraoperative mu ltiplane echocardiography (MTEE) has been performed at our institute i n older children for several different congenital heart lesions includ ing many patients with subaortic stenosis. A retrospective analysis of our experience with MTEE in patients with subaortic stenosis was perf ormed to assess its usefulness in the preoperative diagnosis and posto perative assessment of repair. Our results show that intraoperative MT EE was useful preoperatively by correcting or confirming suspected dia gnosis, and giving additional details of the lesion in many patients. Postoperatively, MTEE was highly useful in the assessment of repair. W e strongly recommend the use of intraoperative MTEE in older children and adolescents with subaortic stenosis.