Coronary disease & ACSRandomised controlled trial
Randomized Feasibility Trial of Routine Versus Selective Transesophageal Echocardiography During Isolated Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting
- pragmatic, randomized feasibility trial
- 2 tertiary-care hospitals within a single health system
Authors' conclusion
In this pragmatic randomized feasibility trial, both TEE strategies were successfully implemented with high protocol adherence and preserved clinician and patient equipoise, supporting a multicenter randomized trial evaluating routine vs selective TEE during isolated CABG.
Study context
- Population
- Adults undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for whom both strategies were clinically acceptablerandomized following induction of anesthesia, 274 screened, 72 eligible, 46 (64%) consented
- Participants
- 40 adults
- Comparison
- Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE)-by-default vs TEE-on-demand
- TEE-by-defaultn = 20
- TEE-on-demandn = 20
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
Primary feasibility outcomes: enrollment, successful randomization, and protocol adherence
- Screened
- 274
- Eligible
- 72
- Consented (of eligible)
- 46 (64%)
- Randomized
- 40 (56% of eligible; 87% of consented)
- Protocol adherence
- 39/40; 98%
- Allocation error
- 1
Further findings
- Clinically triggered TEE in the TEE-on-demand arm
- 15% · 3 of 20 of 20
Safety
Deaths · within 90 days
- No deaths occurred
Serious adverse events adjudicated as related to TEE exposure
- Serious adverse events related to TEE exposure
- Three
- esophageal complications
- 2
- conversion to combined CABG and mitral valve replacement
- 1
Original publication
Randomized Feasibility Trial of Routine Versus Selective Transesophageal Echocardiography During Isolated Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting. JACC Adv. Published 20 July 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jacadv.2026.103030
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it