Hepatic Venous Confusion

The author read with great interest the article by Helwani et al. on assessment of hepatic venous Doppler tracings in constrictive pericarditis.1 After a review of constrictive pericarditis and its management, the authors describe the differences between preoperative and intraoperative echocardiographic analysis of the hepatic venous waveforms in various stages of the perioperative period. This case description in particular has very interesting clinical implications given the history of atrial fibrillation, and hence a lack of prominent A wave reversal during expiration in spontaneous, non-positive pressure ventilation (a noted feature of constrictive pericarditis in the American Society of Echocardiography guidelines).

Source: Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia - December 9, 2019 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Jamel P. Ortoleva Tags: Editorial Source Type: research