Outpatient transesophageal echocardiography with intravenous propofol anesthesia in children and adolescents.

Outpatient transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) was performed in 10 children and adolescents (aged 3 to 19.5 years, mean 13.5 years; weight 12 to 91 kg, mean 49 kg), including two with Down's syndrome and one with autism, for diagnostic evaluation of issues unresolved by transthoracic echo examination (TTE). Issues for TEE: evaluation for atrial septal defect (two patients); anatomy of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (one patient); aortic valve anatomy before valvuloplasty for insufficiency (one patient); evaluation for cause of cyanosis after Fontan operation (one patient); determination of source of high-velocity intracardiac turbulence after atrioventricular septal defect repair (one patient); rule out cardiac embolic source in patient with stroke (one patient); evaluate prosthetic valve function and rule out thrombus (one patient); determination of anatomic relationship of mitral valve to a ventricular septal defect before surgery for complex cyanotic heart disease (one patient); and evaluation for aortic dissection in Marfan's syndrome (one patient). Intravenous propofol anesthesia administered without endotracheal intubation by an anesthesiologist allowed successful outpatient TEE in nine patients; midazolam-conscious sedation was used in one. Outpatient TEE resolved diagnostic issues in all patients without complication, thereby avoiding cardiac catheterization in six patients and supplementing catheterization for preoperative planning in four patients. TEE can be performed safely and effectively with propofol anesthesia in the outpatient setting in carefully selected children and adolescents to provide vital diagnostic information. However, given the invasive nature of the procedure and the use of anesthesia, outpatient pediatric TEE should be used judiciously.