Surgical Treatment of Chronic Pericarditis: Case Analysis of 19 Cases

만성 심낭염의 외과적 요법

19 chronic pericarditis patients reviewed who were treated by surgical intervention in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Chonnam University Hospital during the recent 10 years from January of 1968 to January of 1978. 2. There were 14males and 5 females in this series. Range of age varied from 110 days to 61 years. 2. There were two hospital death, one expired 2 days and another 3 days after the pericardiectomy. In both of them, myocardial damage by disease process seemed to be major contributing factor. 2. Clinical and histological study showed tuberculous origin in 8 cases, nonspecific chronic inflammatory changes in 6 cases and pyogenic infection cases in 5 patients. 2. The postoperative complications were observed in 6 cases, and the most common was cardiac arrhythmia and wound infection. 2. The extent of pericardiectomy should be confined to the left and right ventricles to correct the hemodynamic anomaly in general. The results of this procedure has been satisfactory in 89 percent of the cases. 2. Optimal myocardial function in cases of constritive pericarditis was the key to the successful outcome of this procedure.