Usefulness of Echocardiography for General Surgery Patients on Intensive Care Units: When and How?

Abstract

Purpose: Echocardiography is useful in the management of critically ill patients, but there are fewstudies on the usefulness of an echocardiography for critical general surgery patients. This studyaimed to address this by analyzing the indications and findings for and clinical outcomes between(1) chest trauma; (2) cardiac specific pathology; and (3) hemodynamic instability groups of criticalgeneral surgery patientsMethods: Retrospective analysis was performed on the medical records data from the last 5years of general surgery patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and hadan echocardiography at least once during their ICU stay. The patient data were divided into 3groups according to the indication for an echocardiography and based on the clinical situation. Demographics, the ratio of positive echocardiography findings, and clinical outcomes including thelength of hospital stay, length of ICU stay, and in-hospital mortality were analyzed among thesegroups. Results: There were statistical differences in the rate of positive echocardiography findings (p =0.018) and in-hospital mortality (p = 0.001) amongst the groups with different echocardiographyindications; there was no difference in the length of stay. Patients who had an echocardiographydue to hemodynamic instability or cardiologic pathology presented with a higher ratio of positiveechocardiography findings and mortality, compared with the chest trauma patient group. The chesttrauma group showed the lowest rate of positive echocardiography findings (7%). Conclusion: Echocardiographies are useful for general surgery patients in ICUs when there areindications such as previous cardiac pathology history or hemodynamic instability.