Hypoxaemia produced by an oesophageal stethoscope: a case report.

A seven-month-old child with complex cyanotic heart disease desaturated dramatically following induction of anaesthesia. While a degree of hypoxaemia would have been acceptable in this infant, pulse oximetry detected an abrupt desaturation prompting the anaesthetist to consider other less common causes of cyanosis. This episode of desaturation subsided with the removal of a 12 french oesophageal stethoscope which had been inserted following induction. Further attempts to re-insert this oesophageal probe led to repeated episodes of desaturation. The most likely cause of this desaturation was a reduction in pulmonary blood flow due to compression by the oesophageal probe of an aorto-pulmonary collateral posterior to the oesophagus.