Complication

The pericardial tamponade itself already represents a life-threatening complication of serious heart or lung diseases. The impending complication of pericardial tamponade is a further restriction of heart function, which can lead to cardiac arrest in various ways. A potential loss of blood via bleeding into the pericardium and the chest can also lead to severe shock conditions with a lack of blood volume and circulatory arrest.

Prognosis

The prognosis depends very much on the extent and the cause of the pericardial tamponade. In principle, it is a life-threatening, highly acute clinical picture. Tears in the heart muscle or pericardial tamponades caused by infarctions or aortic dissections are often fatal within seconds, so that a diagnosis and treatment cannot be made.

Less acute courses of a heart attack or other damage to the cardiovascular system can in most cases be treated well by intensive care medicine. In less acute cases, the prognosis of pericardial tamponade usually coincides with the prognosis of the underlying disease. Even with adequate treatment, long-term damage to the heart muscle can persist.

The course of the disease can vary greatly. In the majority of cases, pericardial tamponade is a very rapid and acute clinical picture that requires urgent, immediate intensive medical treatment. If the triggering event, for example a heart attack, occurs suddenly, there may be bleeding into the pericardium, which slowly expands.

Initially, the pericardium expands with the effusion. Later, however, the fluid presses on the heart muscle, which means that it cannot fill sufficiently and the circulatory function is restricted.Within a very short period of time it can lead to severe blood loss in all organs and a loss of consciousness. Most pericardial tamponades are diagnosed when death has already occurred.

Often pericardial tamponades occur as a result of heart ruptures, which are fatal within seconds to minutes, so that there is no possibility of treatment. If, on the other hand, pericardial tamponade is clinically diagnosed, it is often easily treated by means of a puncture. The prognosis of slow tamponades therefore depends on the underlying disease.