Incidence of sore throat and patient complaints after intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography during cardiac surgery.

To evaluate the incidence of postoperative side effects and patient complaints following transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), 57 patients were interviewed by questionnaire and examined by pharyngeal inspection, preoperatively. The patients were randomized to undergo surgery with or without intraoperative TEE, and a second interview and examination were performed in 48 patients on the second postoperative day using a double-blind protocol. Twenty-four of the patients were investigated by TEE over a period of 5.4 +/- 2.3 hours and 24 had surgery without TEE. The intubation time for the two groups did not differ. There was no difference between controls and TEE patients with regard to painful swallowing evaluated by a visual analog scale. Furthermore, there was no difference between the controls and TEE patients regarding nausea or time elapsed from extubation to the first oral intake. No differences between the groups were found regarding the findings on pharyngeal inspection and no major complication attributable to the use of TEE occurred. A sore throat with painful swallowing was not a great problem for the patients in the present study; this indicates that endotracheal intubation rather than TEE caused the minor complaints. It is concluded that intraoperative TEE can be used without harmful postoperative pharyngeal side effects.