Usefulness of transesophageal echocardiographic monitoring in transluminal endovascular stent-graft repair for thoracic aortic aneurysm.

The endovascular stent-graft has been devised for the treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) to reduce complications associated with conventional surgical repair. The present study assessed the usefulness of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for intra- and post-operative examinations in patients treated with transluminal endovascular stent-graft repair for TAA. Nine patients with TAA and 2 with chronic type B aortic dissection were studied. Immediately after stent-graft deployment, perigraft leakage was evaluated with both intraoperative TEE and aortography. In 9 of 11 patients, TEE and aortography immediately after stent-graft deployment revealed the same perigraft leakage results. TEE might therefore be useful for evaluating perigraft leakage and thrombus formation after stent-graft repair for TAA and could be an alternative to aortography, especially for patients with renal dysfunction who have the possibility of contrast agent-induced complications.