CARDIAC TAMPONADE: HEMOPERICARDIUM-RELATED FATALITIES IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Year 2011, Volume: 25 Issue: 3, 85 - 88, 31.12.2011

Yalçın Büyük A. Sadi Çağdır A. Selçuk Gürler D. Oğuzhan Melez Yavuz Hekimoğlu

https://izlik.org/JA77PK45JY

Abstract

Objective:
Bleeding into the pericardial sac
may occur from the surface or the
cavities of the heart, or from the
intrapericardial segments of the
roots of great vessels, particularly
the aorta and pulmonary artery.
In most cases, the cause of
hemoperikardium is a natural
disease such as a ruptured
myocardial infarct or a ruptured
dissecting aneurysm of the aorta
but it is also a sequel to the trauma
of the chest.
Methods:
Retrospective analysis of autopsy
records of the Council of Forensic
Medicine between the years
2004–2006 revealed 117 fatalities
resulting from cardiac tamponade.
Results:
Of the cases 87 (74.36 %) were
males and 30 females (25.64 %).
The preponderance of male cases
was prominent in both natural
and traumatic death cases but
was significantly apparent in
traumatic cases. The origin of the
hemopericardium was natural
disease in 69 (58.97 %) of total
117 cases. In 48 (41.01 %) cases
it was resulted from trauma.
Localization of the rupture in
tamponade cases showed the
following distribution: the most
frequent site of rupture in natural
death cases was left ventricle (20;
28.98 %), in traumatic cases it
was right ventricle (28; 58.33 %).
Volume of blood in pericardial sac
ranged between 350 and 1300 cc.
Conclusion:
In cases of stab wounds and
gunshot fatalities the localizations
of the wounds leading to injury in
target organs were detected to be
at left side of the chest in 79 % of
the cases.

Keywords

Cardiac tamponade , Hemopericardium , Blunt trauma

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