Demographics
Of the 18 patients (66.7% male) included for analysis, six (33.3%) underwent FEES examination following LVAD surgery (Table 1). Patients undergoing FEES were comparable in age (62 ± 15 vs 54 ± 12 years,P ­­ = 0.32) and BMI (32.9 ± 8.2 vs 28.1 ± 4.5, P = 0.23) to the matched control patients. Sex and race were comparable between cohorts (P = 1.00 and P = 0.67, respectively). There were no substantial differences between cohorts in the incidence of active tobacco use, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Matched control patients had higher EuroSCORE II values though not statistically significant (6.0 ± 3.2 vs 10.6 ± 6.5,P = 0.06). All patients underwent LVAD implantation with either the HeartMate III or HeartWare (P = 0.85). Patients in the FEES cohort did not differ from the matched cohort based on TEE time (325.2 ± 40.4 ­­vs 308.1 ± 103.0 minutes, P = 0.62), CPB time (91.3 ± 26.0 vs 96.1 ± 39.7 minutes, P = 0.71), operative time (308.5 ± 34.3 vs 297.4 ± 88.8 minutes, P = 0.38), and total intubation time (68.7 ± 75.9 vs 57.3 ± 82.3 minutes,P = 0.77).