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Advanced effusive-constrictive pericarditis rescued by the aggressive waffl e procedure

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Abstract

We report the case of a 68-year-old man with progressive heart failure due to effusive-constrictive pericarditis. During approximately 1 month, echocardiography revealed rapid progression from pericarditis with effusion without tamponade to pericardial thickening and diastolic dysfunction. Cardiac catheterization revealed that the pressure in the right heart chambers remained high after pericardiocentesis. The patient was rescued by aggressive pericardiectomy and sharp dissection of the epicardium into small fragments. This on-pump beating-heart surgery is known as the waffle procedure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Shogoin-Kawahara-machi, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan

    Kazuhiro Yamazaki, Akira Marui, Takahiro Nakahara, Yoshiaki Saji, Takeshi Nishina, Tadashi Ikeda & Ryuzo Sakata

  2. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyoto University, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

    Satoshi Shizuta

Authors
  1. Kazuhiro Yamazaki
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  2. Akira Marui
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  3. Takahiro Nakahara
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  4. Yoshiaki Saji
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  5. Takeshi Nishina
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  6. Tadashi Ikeda
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  7. Satoshi Shizuta
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  8. Ryuzo Sakata
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Correspondence to Kazuhiro Yamazaki.

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Yamazaki, K., Marui, A., Nakahara, T. et al. Advanced effusive-constrictive pericarditis rescued by the aggressive waffl e procedure. Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 60, 297–301 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11748-011-0798-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11748-011-0798-9

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