Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

Laura Rosewell DipAVN RVN MBVNA — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 20:39:04 GMT

All GA's should at least have hands on assessment of cardiovascular/respiratory/CNS function plus whatever monitoring equipment available, I agree. I do find that I am not able to sit and continually palpate pulses as normally being pulled in various directions by vets and my other nurses, so the Doppler gives me an estimation of perfusion adequacy when I am not able to have my fingers on a pulse. I think that may not have come across quite right in my last post. There are some monitoring devices I find invaluable (capnography & BP) but I do feel these days monitors can be relied upon too heavily (in some cases) without appreciation given to their limitations.

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

leanne walker — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:18:29 GMT

in my opinion the best method of monitoring is feeling peripheral pulses, using your eyes to look at the patient (eye position, mm colour, crt, resp depth/pattern etc, and using monitoring equipment to do the parts you cant do...capnography, blood pressure etc. my worry with oesophageals is it only tells you they heart is beating and regular, not how well the heart is pumping the blood around the body and if you only notice there is a problem when you dont hear the heart on the oesophageal you are probably to late to be able to do anything. you use doppler so at least that is giving you an idea of the peripheral perfusion, just as feeling a pulse would. i think machines have their place and i use a multi parameter machine in every ga i do as an extra bit of information that i cant get myself from looking at the patient, i also think oesophageals have their place and i have one placed in all of my ga's, its just i only use it to listen when i cant feel an adequate pulse.

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

Laura Rosewell DipAVN RVN MBVNA — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 23:18:50 GMT

Interestingly I find a lot of nurses these days tend to ignore oesophageals and pulse palpation and rely on monitoring equipment instead (maybe just where I have worked. either way it's my bug bear!!) I must admit I rarely have finger on pulse but use oesophageals and Doppler BP routinely with all GAs as I like to hear the pulse and don't have enough hands as it is! In response to the OP... I just pull the end out of my own stethoscope and stick the oesophageal in it :)

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

leanne walker — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:29:11 GMT

sorry, you are right they havent, its just in my experience when people are complaining about the earpiece being uncomfortable it is because they are sitting with them in their ears through the whole anaesthetic....it suprises me how many nurses you find nowadays that cant even feel a pulse other than the femoral (and vets come to think of it!)

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

Steph Smith BSc(hons) RVN — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:47:34 GMT

I don't think anyone has said they use a stethoscope without palpating the pulse Leanne?

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

leanne walker — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:39:00 GMT

it worries me when I see people using an oesophageal stethoscope in their ear for the whole anaesthetic...I feel much more confident seeing a nurse with their finger on its pulse rather than an oesophageal stethoscope in their ear....however I do believe they should be used but just placed and ready to use if either you lose your pulse or positioning of the animal on the theatre table prevents access to a peripheral pulse. therefore in answer to your question I think it is good that the earpiece is uncomfortable because it may encourage the person using it to put it down and check a peripheral pulse instead

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

Nick Shackleton — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:52:25 GMT

Where I use to work we all had our own stethoscope with removable end that connected onto oesphageal stethoscope tubing. We got the soft tips to put on the ear piece a lot more comfortable. With the added bonus of not having to share ear pieces with other people at work. We had Doppler equipment so coul listen to pulses when not using stethoscope.

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

astinos — Sat, 04 May 2013 19:22:37 GMT

We tend to use the krusse cardio sound speaker. Excellent piece of kit. Instead of a stephascope the portex connector connects to a speaker. Its reassuring being able to hear the HR/RR when you need to get more swabs!

Re: Oesophageal stethescope - your recommendations?

sarahjune84 — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:37:15 GMT

HI Steph,

We use oesophageal stethoscopes all the time, and highly recommend you change the rock hard ear tips to the nice soft ones, any type should fit and only cost a few pounds