A ten-year experience with operations on the pericardium in 71 consecutive patients was reviewed. The patients ranged in age from nine months to 75 years old. Fifty-three patients were operated upon for pericardial effusion and 14 for pericardial constriction. Sixty-seven patients had pericarditis: 21 of them underwent subxiphoid tube drainage; ten, limited pericardiectomy; and the remaining 36...

Recurrent right-sided heart failure after pericardiectomy may be caused by incomplete pericardiectomy, recurrent constriction, diastolic dysfunction or myocardial involvement. Identifying recurrent constrictive pericarditis (CP) in patients who have recurring symptoms after pericardiectomy is challenging, since the characteristic Doppler echocardiographic features may not be present if a portio...

The short-term effect of pericardiectomy is to shift the in vivo left ventricular (LV) pressure-volume curve to the right. We studied nine weight-matched pairs of male guinea pigs 28 to 39 days (mean 35) after complete pericardiectomy or sham thoracotomy to determine the long-term effects of pericardiectomy on LV pressure-volume relations. Hemodynamic and in vitro LV pressure-volume data were c...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to prospectively investigate the effects of pericardiectomy via median sternotomy on intra- and postoperative hemodynamics by a new semi-invasive device (Flotrac/VigileoTM monitor) using arterial pressure waveform analysis. PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirty consecutive patients aged 15 to 55 years (mean+SD, 31.73 + 13.53 years), who had undergone total pericardiec...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have demonstrated that mitral annulus early diastolic (e') velocity is increased in constrictive pericarditis (CP) and reduced in restrictive cardiomyopathy. However, those studies did not comprehensively evaluate mitral and tricuspid annular velocities before and after pericardiectomy. METHODS AND RESULTS We performed comprehensive echocardiography before and afte...

INTRODUCTION Constrictive pericarditis is an uncommon disease characterized by impaired diastolic filling of the ventricles, encased in a fibrotic pericardium resulting from an inflammatory process. Rheumatoid arthritis is a rare cause of constrictive pericarditis, usually due to a concomitant acute or chronic serositis. PRESENTATION OF CASE This paper presents a unique case of recurrent cons...

OBJECTIVES The study assessed changes in left ventricular systolic and diastolic function after pericardiectomy in patients with constrictive pericarditis and correlated postoperative Doppler echocardiographic findings with clinical status. BACKGROUND Despite the efficacy of pericardiectomy, some patients with constrictive pericarditis fail to improve postoperatively. Data on serial evaluatio...

We report a case of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) that increased markedly after pericardiectomy for constrictive pericarditis. Preoperative mild-to-moderate TR increased to severe following surgery. The patient was asymptomatic, and gradual regression of TR was observed. Eighteen months postoperatively, a left atrial thrombus formed, and a second surgery consisting of thrombectomy and tricuspid ...

Constrictive pericardial disease developing after open heart surgery is not a well-recognized complication of this procedure. It has been reported only a few times and usually not with good hemodynamic data before and after the subsequent pericardiectomy. We presently report a patient who developed constrictive pericardial disease five years after mitral valve replacement. This was documented w...