Transesophageal echocardiography in a case of cardiac compression: was it therapeutic?

Cardiac compression is a potentially life-threatening complication of heart surgery. This syndrome often has atypical manifestations, challenging our ability to make a rapid diagnosis and to institute emergent, life-saving treatment. We recently evaluated one such patient who showed cardiac compression caused by an unusual paracardiac mass. The addition of transesophageal echocardiography to the usual transthoracic study may have played more than just a diagnostic role in this case.