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).