If echocardiography is to be used in intensive care, there is a need for :
an intensivist trained in general echocardiography but also in intensive care echocardiography,
an echocardiographer dedicated to the intensive care unit,
a multiplane transesophageal probe.
Unless there is a diagnostic emergency, we reserve transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for sedated and mechanically ventilated patients, bearing in mind the difficulty of performing such an examination in a spontaneously breathing patient presenting, for example, acute respiratory failure. Echocardiography is used for diagnostic purposes (endocarditis, valve disease, dissection of the aorta, aortic trauma, pericardial effusion, pulmonary embolism, cardiomyopathy…) and also for therapeutic reasons, such as evaluation of central blood volume, cardiac function, and impact of ventilation on cardiac function, for decision-making regarding volume expansion, infusion of inotropic agents, changes to ventilator settings, inhalation of NO…
