Fig. 2
From: Usefulness and growing need for intraoperative transthoracic echocardiography: a case series
Algorithm for the choice of intraoperative echocardiography. First, if we maintain the airway other than tracheal intubation during surgery, we recommend TTE because it is difficult to quickly use TEE. Second, we can use TTE or TEE only if its acoustic window (patient’s left thorax or esophagus) are accessible. If both are available, we should choice more suitable one in a given case, considering each characteristic of TTE or TEE