title: Percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy for patients with malignant pericardial effusion including three malignant pleural mesotheliomas.
abstract: Ten patients were enrolled in this study to evaluate the therapeutic value of percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy in patients with symptomatic pericardial effusion secondary to malignant diseases. Four patients had breast cancer; 2 had lung cancer; 1 had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; and 3 had malignant pleural mesothelioma, which is commonly seen in Central Anatolian region of Turkey. All patients underwent percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy with monofoil balloons (Mansfield, NuMed). No complication was seen during these procedures. In 3 patients, the balloon could not be expanded completely and was entered from a more lateral position by a second puncture. There was no recurrence of pericardial effusion in 6 of 7 patients without mesothelioma. After percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy, surgical subxiphoid windowing was performed due to drainage greater than 100 mL/day in a patient with lung cancer and in 1 patient with mesothelioma. In the other 2 patients with mesothelioma, recurrence of pericardial effusion was seen and then subxiphoid surgical windowing was performed due to development of cardiac tamponade in 1 of them. All the patients died 68.6 +/- 36 days later due to the primary malignancies. The survival time of patients with mesothelioma was shorter than that of the others (p < 0.05). These results suggest that percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy may be used in the treatment of patients with malignant pericardial effusion as an alternative to surgical pericardial window creation. But in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, the success rate of this procedure was lower than that of the others.
authors.affiliation: Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Cardiology, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ovünç
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aytemir
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ozer
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Atalar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aksöyek
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nazli
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gürsel
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000150:complications; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000150:complications*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010490:Pericardial Effusion / Q000601:surgery*; D010491:Pericardial Window Techniques; D010492:Pericardiectomy / Q000379:methods*; D010997:Pleural Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D012008:Recurrence; D016896:Treatment Outcome