Accesibilidad a Ventanas Ecocardiográficas Transtorácicas Intraoperatorias En Cirugía Abdominal Bajo Anestesia General

background and Objetive: There is enough bibliography that supports the use of Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and the impact it generates in the field of critical medicine.However, the main limitation in anesthesia is access to windows in patients with unchanged positions and usually in mechanical ventilation.Therefore we decided to conduct an observational study regarding the obtaining of basic echocardiographic windows in patients under general anesthesia.Methods: 50 patiens were enrolled.After ventilator setting, in dorsal decubitus and with the surgical fields placed, 4 windows were explored: subcostal, apical, parasternal and supraesternal.PEEP, tidal volume, BMi, age, sex were recorded.Each window was evaluated with a score: 2 points: optimal,1 point: partial, 0 point: the window can not be obtained.Results: The subcostal window could not be obtained in any patient (surgical fields).The remaining 3 windows on score of 6 possible points the average was 5.14.The parasternal window obtained a lowest score (p = 0,0026).The most frequent cause of impossibility of access to the window was the presence of the lung.There was no difference between subgroups (PEEP > 10 and BMi > 30) and score obtained, according to Pearson coefficient.Conclusion: The accessibility to the apical and suprasternal windows was close to optimal.The parasternal window had smaller scores but had no relation to the level of PEEP nor the BMi.Limitations: small number of patients and very limited shelter to extrapolate findings.