ABSTRACT
Malignancy is the leading cause of chronic pericardial effusion. Although maybe not life-threatening as the acute tamponade, by compressing cardiac cavities and adjacent organs, causes significant morbidity and discomfort for the patient. Its early diagnosis and effective and safe treatment would have significant role in improving the patint's quality of life and his life expectancy
There are various treament modalities with different success rate including,pericardiocentesis alone [average success rate of 47%] or with indwelling catheter drainage [78%], sclerotherapy [83%], external radiotherapy [69%], and surgery [success rete of 48-92% for different techniques], and Percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy [96%]
Percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy is a promising nonsurgical therapy, especially in malignant recurrent tamponade, in which after drainage of pericardial fluid through subxiphoid pericardiotomy, using a balloon catheter, a window is created in parietal pericardium
Generally it has the same early and late results as surgical Pericardiotomy, especially in malignancies, with less morbidity. But its role in the management of nonmalignant pericardial effusion is not clear. Here, in addition to introducing this method, we report successful treatment of a case of recurrent temponade with past history of treated gastric cancer