This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on Web of Science (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

MARTIN B. MYLES, M.D.; ROBERT B. PFEFFER, M.D.; PETER W. STONE, M.D.

AMA Arch Surg. 1957;75(2):287-292.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The presence of a subacute or chronic pericarditis with effusion is not a common condition encountered on a surgical service. The surgeon is much more aware of acute pericardial tamponade secondary to penetrating wounds of the heart. Here the condition can easily be suspected by the site and type of injury, as well as the dramatic clinical picture and fairly typical signs.^1,2 A small effusion into the pericardial sac may be quickly fatal, since there is little dilatation of the pericardium and shock can occur quickly. Elkin and Campbell³ have reported a case in which 5 cc. of blood in the pericardium has given a 0/0 arterial blood pressure. Subacute or chronic pericarditis, on the other hand, can lead to massive effusion without the striking clinical picture of acute tamponade. Yu et al.⁸ have reported a case in which pericardial aspiration yielded 1910 cc. of fluid on . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
New York

From the Departments of Medicine and Surgery, New York University Post-Graduate Medical School and the Fourth Medical and Surgical Divisions (New York University) of Bellevue Hospital.

Footnotes
Received for publication Jan. 15, 1957.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?