Pediatric transesophageal echocardiography

In face of several limitations of precordial ultrasound investigations in children with congenital heart disease, it was attempted to defme the additional value of pediatric transesophageal echocardiography. Its comparative value, firstly, in the preoperative diagnosis of congenital heart disease had to be determined (Chapters 4-8), secondly, its place as an intraoperative monitoring technique in the surgery of congenital heart disease had to be assessed (Chapter 9), and thirdly, its role in the follow-up of congenital heart disease, when compared to precordial ultrasound techniques and cardiac catheterization, had to be defmed (Chapters 10,11)