Transesophageal echocardiography in the evaluation of a transmediastinal gunshot wound: case report

Transesophageal echocardiography is a safe, minimally invasive imaging modality that may be useful in the evaluation of transmediastinal gunshot wounds. In this report, we describe a hemodynamically stable patient who sustained a gunshot wound to the ascending aorta. Routine diagnostic evaluation, including aortography, failed to confirm the suspected diagnosis. Transesophageal echocardiography definitively detailed the injury to the aorta enabling definitive surgical repair.