Pericardial Effusion

[RandyL]

Why is it that when I had this fluid my Doctor went right for surgery and a pericardial window? I have read mny posts of people getting medicine and sticking a needle in and draining out the fluid.
Just Curious

 

[Ross]

Yours must have been so bad that it was limiting your hearts ability to pump or becoming life threatening. If there is too much pressure on the heart and it's being squeezed to death, they'll go for a window.

 

[Lynlw]

Why is it that when I had this fluid my Doctor went right for surgery and a pericardial window? I have read mny posts of people getting medicine and sticking a needle in and draining out the fluid.
Just Curious

I've wonderred that too. Justin had very bad pericardial effusion when he was a toddler and they never did a window, they tapped him and gave him steriods, he had it coming back so often and it was in a hard place to drain, so for a while he had a small cath left in that they could just draw the fluid off instead of sticking him ever few days. most people (usually they are kids so maybe that is different) that I know of never had the window, lyn

 

[Ross]

When my aneurysm went it filled the Paracardium with blood and clots. I would have died in minutes had they not done an emergency window on me before shipping me off to Cleveland.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Mine was severe....so they did the window. Though...I had to turn blue before anyone properly diagnosed. They kept saying it was the flu. Good news....the effusion never returned. I felt like a champ later that evening in CICU.

 

[Lynlw]

When my aneurysm went it filled the Paracardium with blood and clots. I would have died in minutes had they not done an emergency window on me before shipping me off to Cleveland.

you know that could be something, I wonder if the treatment partly has to do w/ what the fluid is, Justin's was more of a clear fluid, but he didn't have any clots so i guess that would be easier to draw out.
was your fluid before the surgery? I was mostly thinking of post op fluid,

 

[RandyL]

Mine was post op 6 days

 

[marky]

Mine was very severe..but they did not do a window the first time for two reasons...
1. It was Sunday eve and they needed to do an emergency drain as I was in tamponade..
2. i was at a different hospital than my surgeon..and they did not want to perform surgery until he had discharged me..

the second time they drained it ..
It was Friday eve.. again I was in tamponade and they did not know who to call..so they did another drain and put in a cathetar and left it there for 2 days to cont. to drain.
again I was at a different hospital

However.. my surgeon wanted to do the window, but I did not want to go back to that hospital.

 

[csutherland]

In Jerry's case, when they finally got around to an echo followed by a TEE I was told that "his pericardium is filled w/fluid and his heart is already compromised. We need to do surgery immediately." If they had listened to me in urgent care, (and later primary care) maybe medication and draining would've done it. For some reason nobody wanted to admit that a man who had had AVR 6 wks earlier could have complications.

He found the recovery from the window harder and longer than the AVR; he was hospitalized for 13 days draining.

 

[csutherland]

additional info

additional info

For some reason I'm not able to edit my post. I forgot to mention that it was blood around his heart, not just clear fluid.

 

[Ross]

you know that could be something, I wonder if the treatment partly has to do w/ what the fluid is, Justin's was more of a clear fluid, but he didn't have any clots so i guess that would be easier to draw out.
was your fluid before the surgery? I was mostly thinking of post op fluid,

Mine was before they even discovered the ruptured aneurysm that put it all in there.