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Constrictive pericarditis: Clinical profile and management

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Abstract

One-hundred and sixteen patients were surgically treated for constrictive pericarditis over a period of 18 years. Twenty-eight patients were less than 15 years old. All patients had exertional dyspnoea and elevated jugular venous pressure. Eighty-eight patients had NYHA class III or IV functional disability. Only 2 cases had atrial fibrillation. Seventeen patients had roentgenographic evidence of pericardial calcification. Fluoroscopy showed diminished cardiac movements in 110 cases. Cardiac catheterisation in 77 patients demonstrated classical haemodynamic pattern of constrictive pericarditis. All our patients underwent subtotal pericardiectomy through a left anterolateral approach. Seventy-one patients had histological evidence of tuberculous pericarditis. Nearly 88 per cent of the followed up cases reported good to excellent relief. The hospital mortality was 6.9 per cent. Our observations and inferences are compared with those of other published reports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, GB Pant Hospital, New Delhi, India

    Amit Banerjee (Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Associate Professor), P S Narayanan (Professor and Head of the Department), S K Khanna (Associate Professor) & B K Gupta (Associate Professor)

  2. Department of Cardiology, GB Pant Hospital, New Delhi, India

    Ramesh Arora (Professor) & M Khalilullah (Professor and Head of the Department)

Authors
  1. Amit Banerjee
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  2. P S Narayanan
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  3. S K Khanna
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  4. B K Gupta
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  5. Ramesh Arora
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  6. M Khalilullah
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Banerjee, A., Narayanan, P.S., Khanna, S.K. et al. Constrictive pericarditis: Clinical profile and management. Indian J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 4, 32–38 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02664082

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