Is a TEE required by most surgeons?

Posted by mcardleclan @mcardleclan, Apr 14 3:18pm

5.0 in the root with lots of family history of the same. Been speaking with several facilities and surgeons. Completed a CT w/ contrast and ECHO already. I know before surgery they will want a Heart Cath, genetic testing and some will want another echo and CT at their facility a few days before, but one surgeon had mentioned needing a TEE before proceeding.

Is this common?

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rlhix | @rlhix | Apr 15 12:20pm

They had a TEE in place in real time during my surgery at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville. The Anesthesiologist that was there was also certified to do the TEE. Its not uncommon for them to do one prior to surgery as well.

racersailor | @racersailor | Apr 16 8:17am

TEE is designed to look at the back of the heart. So yes it is very common to try and get that view as well. It was a no big deal thing for me at least. I thought the heart cath was a lot more annoying.

rlhix | @rlhix | Apr 16 8:44am

I should have mentioned while a didn't have the TEE before surgery, I did have a cardiac MRI. The TEE was used during surgery and since my surgery being around 14.5 hours, it was a good thing.

too | @too | Apr 16 9:52am

Yes, I’ve had several (3) one when surgeon did The Watchman, one 45 days after to make sure all was working and one after a year to see that all is well with Watchman. All Good!
Doing extremely well and now I’m 91 years young 😁

rockpir | @rockpir | Apr 16 10:41am

In reply to @too "Yes, I’ve had several (3) one when surgeon did The Watchman, one 45 days after to..." + (show)

@too How old when you had surgery?

too | @too | Apr 16 1:28pm

In reply to @rockpir "@too How old when you had surgery?" + (show)

@rockpir I had surgery (Stent LAD 8-19-2019, The Watchman 3-30-2023 in May same year TEE. I feel great very seldom (so far) have any atrial fibrillation) or NSVT am now Amiodarone only 50mgs could not tolerate any higher started off with 200mgs down to 100mgs now I cut those in half (a pain) but this works for me. My 91st birthday picture 😁

camb40 | @camb40 | 1 day ago

In reply to @rlhix "I should have mentioned while a didn't have the TEE before surgery, I did have a..." + (show)

@rlhix Is 14.5 hours the average surgery time.???

rlhix | @rlhix | 1 day ago

In reply to @camb40 "@rlhix Is 14.5 hours the average surgery time.???" + (show)

@camb40

No that about double the normal time. I had 3 major procedures scheduled with an estimated 6 hours to 8hrs 6 minutes, but had to have the emergent bio-Bentall procedure.

camb40 | @camb40 | 5 hours ago

thank you for clarifying that. It seemed so frightening, but understandable now.

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