Pre-anesthesia clinic: Skip it or not? A case report

Abstract

We present a rare case of papillary fibroelastoma (PFE) of the aortic valve diagnosed after being referred from a pre-anesthesia clinic. This patient presented in preanesthesia clinic for assessment prior to right total knee replacement. Along with other investigations, echocardiography was ordered as the patient had a previous history of ischemic heart disease with angioplasty. There was no previous echocardiogram (ECHO) in the patient records. An incidental finding of a sclerotic aortic valve with highly mobile mass was seen attached to the right coronary cusp on the aortic side with same echogenicity as the valve. Based on this rare finding, the patient was referred to an interventional cardiac center prior to an elective orthopedic surgery.