Identification of patent foramen ovale during sitting position craniotomy by transesophageal echocardiography with positive airway pressure

Abstract

The use of positive airway pressure (present study) and Valsalva did aid in the transesophageal and precordial ECHO identification of probable patent foramen ovale in the anesthetized patient to allow detection where ZEEP failed. The method does fail to detect a patent foramen ovale at some rate that can only be determined by a much larger series. Intraoperative identification of patent foramen ovale is a step nearer to preoperative identification as an important part of the evaluation of a patient for surgery in the sitting position.