Why the study?
Isolated left ventricular cardiac tamponade is a rare complication of cardiac surgery that had not previously been reported as diagnosed on emergency department bedside ultrasound.
Highlights the importance of a standard 5-view cardiac POCUS examination in post-cardiac surgery patients presenting to the ED to rapidly diagnose rare complications like isolated left ventricular cardiac tamponade.
May prompt POCUS consideration in post-cardiac surgery ED cases; leaves open prospective validation of 5-view protocols.
In this case report, we describe isolated left ventricular cardiac tamponade, a rare complication of cardiac surgery, diagnosed on point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in the emergency department (ED). To our knowledge, this is the first report of such a diagnosis made on ED bedside ultrasound. Our patient was a young adult female with a history of recent mitral valve replacement who presented to the ED with dyspnea and was found to have a large loculated pericardial effusion causing left ventricular diastolic collapse. Rapid diagnosis via POCUS in the ED allowed for expedited definitive treatment by cardiothoracic surgery in the operative room and emphasizes the importance of a standard 5-view cardiac POCUS examination when post-cardiac surgery patients present to the ED.
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Enders et al. (2023) studied this question.
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