-Case Reports-

A Case of Primary Bacterial Pericarditis with Recurrent Cardiac Tamponade

Takashi Yoshizane¹, Takeshi Yamamoto¹, Hiroshi Hayashi¹, Mitsunobu Kitamura¹, Hideki Miyachi¹, Yusuke Hosokawa¹, Koichi Akutsu¹ and Wataru Shimizu²

¹Division of Cardiovascular Intensive Care, Nippon Medical School Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
²Department of Cardiology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan

Cardiac tamponade is an important and potentially lethal complication of acute pericarditis. However, recurrence of cardiac tamponade is rare when it is treated appropriately. We present a 49-year-old man with bacterial pericarditis and recurrent cardiac tamponade, which was caused by the rupture of an upper part of the left atrium (LA). According to the autopsy findings, bacteremia from Staphylococcus aureus developed on a substrate of poorly controlled diabetes mellitus and spread to the pericardium via the blood. Subsequently, tissue necrosis developed from the pulmonary trunk and aorta to the LA, leading to recurrence of cardiac rupture and cardiac tamponade.

J Nippon Med Sch 2017; 84: 133-138

Keywords
bacterial pericarditis, recurrent cardiac tamponade

Correspondence to
Takashi Yoshizane, MD, Division of Cardiovascular Intensive Care, Nippon Medical School Hospital, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8603, Japan
takashiyoshizane@gmail.com

Received, May 30, 2016
Accepted, January 20, 2017