Abstract
Guaranteeing the safety of surgical patients is the most important duties for anesthesiologists. All anesthesiologists should predict and prevent adverse events in the perioperative period and take appropriate action when it occurs. On completing this proposition, the information obtained by echocardiography is very useful. Although most anesthesiologists can read the report from the echocardiography, which is performed by the laboratory technician or cardiologist, anesthesiologists rarely perform echocardiography themselves. Echocardiographic study is done by the anesthesiologist before surgery, and the full study carried out by a sonographer or cardiologist is very different. In general, the following focused observation gives important information for risk management in the perioperative period: 1) left ventricular systolic function, 2) the presence or degree of aortic stenosis, 3) the presence or degree of right ventricular overloading (pulmonary hypertension), 4) inferior vena cava diameter (venous return) and the presence or absence of its respiratory variation, 5) presence of heart failure (left ventricular diastolic dysfunction), and 6) presence or degree of pericardial effusion.
