title: Anterior mediastinal teratoma presenting as cardiac tamponade.
abstract: Anterior mediastinal teratoma presenting clinically as cardiac tamponade is unusual. We report the case of a 58-year-old woman, with an unremarkable prior history, who was admitted with cardiac tamponade. Emergency pericardial aspiration showed a thick, yellow fluid. Computed tomography scan of the chest was suggestive of anterior mediastinal teratoma rupturing into the pericardium. Within 24 hours, just before the planned surgery could be performed, it re-ruptured, warranting emergency surgery. Histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of a teratoma. Early surgery is recommended for even asymptomatic benign mediastinal teratomas to avoid this potentially lethal complication of rupture into the pericardial cavity, and cardiac tamponade.
authors.affiliation: Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. dr-oomman@lycos.com
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oomman
authors.forename: Rajan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Santhosham
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vijayakumar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jayaraman
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ramachandran
authors.forename: Satish
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D002305:Cardiac Tamponade / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008479:Mediastinal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery; D008875:Middle Aged; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous; D013724:Teratoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery