Ana Sjaus, MD, FRCPC, Ashraf Fayad, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FASE
Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia Volume 33, Issue 10, Pages 2797–2803
The need for temporary cardiac pacing may occur in emergency and elective situations and may require transvenous right ventricular lead placement. The treatment of bradyarrhythmias presents the most common perioperative emergency indication. Intraoperatively, temporary rapid right ventricular pacing is accepted as a safe, titratable, and highly reliable method to achieve deliberate hypotension, and it has become a routine practice in the anesthetic management of cardiovascular interventions.
The navigation of the lead into the right ventricle often requires fluoroscopy to guide placement and to confirm position. Ultrasound guidance has been accepted widely by perioperative physicians as a safe technique for central venous access. Basic ultrasound and transthoracic echocardiographic skills rapidly are becoming integral to anesthesiologists’ practice. When used to guide transvenous pacemaker wire insertion, subcostal echocardiographic imaging offers attractive advantages over blind or fluoroscopic placement, including rapid deployment, avoidance of radiation, real-time visualization of the lead in relation to the cardiac structures, and early detection of potential complications, such as tamponade. Read More
