HEMOPERICARDIUM WITH TAMPONADE DURING ANTICOAGULANT THERAPY OF MYOCARDIAL INFARCT

Abstract

Significant pericardial hemorrhage has been reported to have resulted from a number of precipitating factors during the administration of anticoagulants. These include nonpenetrating trauma to the heart, 1 tumor involving the pericardium, and pericarditis of the nonspecific type 2 as well as that associated with myocardial infarction. Reports of hemopericardium with tamponade complicating anticoagulant therapy of acute myocardial infarction have been made by Nichol 3 and by Goldstein and Wolff. 4 Syner 5 has reported a case with relief of tamponade by pericardial aspiration. The purpose of this paper is to report a case in which the relief of cardiac tamponade by pericardiotomy was a life-saving measure. REPORT OF A CASE A 48-year-old accountant was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital on March 4, 1952, with the complaint of a burning sensation in the throat and substernal region. This had been noted for the previous two days on walking and had