Active tuberculous pericarditis is associated with high historical mortality, with previous studies reporting an 83% mortality rate among proven cases.
Tuberculous pericarditis, chronic and insidiously progressive, frequently characterized in its early stages by an inflammatory effusion and culminating almost inevitably in great thickening and fibrous contraction of the diseased pericardium, presents real difficulties in its management.1From very inception, it poses the twofold problem of controlling infection and correcting the mechanical interference with the flow of blood imposed by constriction of the heart or of its great vessels, most particularly the vena cava, the compression of which is believed to be the primary reason for the persistent and recurring pleural and peritoneal effusion. The gravity of the disease is illustrated by the study of Harvey and Whitehill2"Of 20 proven cases with effusion 16 died and of 17 proven cases without an effusion 15 died, a mortality of 83 per cent." Blalock and Levy,3in a study of 22 proved cases in 1937, reported that Every patient,
Emile Holman (Sat,) conducted a other in Active tuberculous pericarditis. Pericardiectomy was evaluated. Active tuberculous pericarditis is associated with high historical mortality, with previous studies reporting an 83% mortality rate among proven cases.
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