Effect of Thoracic Epidural Anesthesia on Left Ventricular Functions: A Strain Echocardiography Study

Post-thoracic surgery pain management thoracic epidural catheter is the most commonly used method.

Thoracic epidural anesthesia, in which cardiac sympathetic nerves (T1-T5) are involved in neural blockade, is the focus of our research. Many studies have shown a decrease in inotropic status (intrinsic function) after blockade of cardiac sympathetic innervation with thoracic epidural anesthesia (TEA).We want to examine the cardiac effects of TEA with strain echocardiography, which is an advanced echocardiography method. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of TEA on left ventricular functions with strain echocardiography.