Evaluating the Safety Profile of Transesophageal Echocardiograms in a Community Hospital Setting

Objective: Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) is a useful diagnostic tool for cardiologists. Despite its widespread use, studies addressing safety concerns are limited. The aim was to evaluate the safety profile of TEEs at the host institution and decide whether postprocedural EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopy) was necessary to assess possible patient injury. Materials and Methods: This was a single-center, retrospective study of patients who underwent TEE in both inpatient and outpatient settings in a community hospital in New York. Data was collected on all adult patient visits from January 1, 2019, to May 30, 2024. Incidence of injury was calculated based on information from procedural reports and documentation in the health systems’ electronic medical record (EMR). Results: A total of 441 patients were included in this study. Only one patient (0.23%) had significant complications associated with TEE (i.e., esophageal perforation). The complication rate, based on this review, for the host hospital appeared lower than the rate of gastrointestinal complications seen in other studies (e.g., 0.51%). Conclusion: This study demonstrated this hospital’s relative safety of performing TEE, due to the low rate of complications. While some health centers may perform postprocedural endoscopies to assess injury, it may be important for labs to replicate this type of review and confirm the overall safety of their performance of TEEs. This has the potential to negate further endoscopic evaluation for injury is not warranted unless clinical signs raising suspicion of injury manifest.