Chronic constrictive pericarditis in children is rare and often presents with non-cardiac symptoms like hepatomegaly and ascites, but can be successfully diagnosed with appropriate laboratory studies and treated with surgical correction.
Supports consideration of constrictive pericarditis in children with hepatomegaly or ascites; leaves open need for prospective outcome data.
Chronic constrictive pericarditis is diagnosed far less frequently in children than in adults and is particularly rare before the age of 10 years. Because the disease is so seldom encountered in pediatric practice and often presents a clinical picture seemingly unrelated to the heart and its coverings, it often poses a problem in diagnosis. On the other hand, when this entity is considered as a possible underlying cause of relatively symptomless hepatomegaly and ascites and appropriate laboratory studies are carried out the presence of the condition may be demonstrated and optimal results may be obtained from operation. A case of constrictive pericarditis recently encountered in an 8-year-old child illustrates not only some of the clinical features of the disease and pitfalls in diagnosis but also the value of certain laboratory procedures and effects of surgical correction. A report of this case follows, and the findings in seven other cases in
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Daniel W. Shea (1957) studied this question.
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