Abstract

AbstractPurulent pericarditis is a secondary disease process which can be, and usually is, masked by the clinical findings of the primary infectious disease. Prompt diagnosis, therefore, depends primarily upon the clinician's high index of suspicion of the possibility of coexistent purulent pericarditis in a patient being treated for another infectious disease whose condition suddenly begins to deteriorate. Once suspected, the diagnosis can be confirmed quite readily by physical examination, chest roentgenography, and pericardiocenresis. The treatment should begin with appropriate antibiotic therapy and be followed as soon as possible with left anterolateral thoracotomy, partial pericardiectomy, and drainage of the remaining pericardial space via the left pleural cavity.