Ency. home > Disease > C > Cardiac tamponade

Cardiac tamponade    See images

Overview | Symptoms | Treatment | Prevention

Alternative names:

Tamponade; Pericardial tamponade

Definition:

A condition involving compression of the heart caused by blood or fluid accumulation in the space between the myocardium (the muscle of the heart) and the pericardium (the outer covering sac of the heart).

Causes and Risks

Cardiac tamponade may be related to pericarditis that results from bacterial or viral infections, with fluid accumulation that results from these processes. It may also be related to heart surgery, dissecting aortic aneurysm (thoracic), penetrating or blunt cardiac trauma, thoracic malignancy, and acute MI.

Blood or fluid collects within the pericardium. This prevents the ventricles from expanding fully, so they cannot adequately fill or pump blood.

Risks for cardiac tamponade include many disorders, such as pericarditis, heart tumors, kidney failure, recent heart attack, injury to the pericardium from surgery or accident, recent invasive heart procedures, radiation therapy to the chest, hypothyroidism, and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Cardiac tamponade occurs in approximately 2 out of 10,000 people.

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